NARP April 2002 Hotlines

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Amtrak President George Warrington today said he would defer certain capital investments and further reduce operating costs by a combined total of $285 million to get Amtrak through the current fiscal year "and manage financial uncertainties in FY02-03." He said these actions were in addition to $258 million in expense reductions affecting those years already under way.

Amtrak entered fiscal 2002 with a budget shortfall, which was worsened by recent events, including the recession ($120 million impact) and added post-September 11 security costs ($16.5 million to date). Warrington said the Amtrak Reform Council's November decision had a negative cash impact of $52 million because of reactions from the financial community.

Warrington commented on Amtrak's cost increases. He said $488 million of Amtrak's $1.1 billion operating loss in 2001 was depreciation, a non-cash expense. Also, interest (mainly on new equipment) is expected to jump from $85 million in 2001 to $187 million this year. Basic wages are rising 3% a year, which he called "reasonable and appropriate," noting that Amtrak wages are still "below market across this industry."

Warrington plans actions that will not reduce train service in the current fiscal year. The actions include $110 million in operating cost reductions, of which a major part is cutting 10% of management positions (about 300, in addition to 167 who took buy-outs or early retirement in 2001) and 3% of non-management positions (about 700). Those include about 400 shop workers and 140 station workers. Hours and staff will be reduced (but not eliminated) at the 73 "lowest-performing" stations. Spending freezes on an array of activities will go into effect. Another $175 million -- 23% of the entire capital program -- comes from deferring capital expenditures, including car maintenance, technology investment, station work, and more.

Finally, Warrington announced a fiscal 2003 budget request of $1.2 billion -- $850 million for capital, $200 million for operations, and $160 million for excess railroad retirement expenses. He said this was needed to maintain the current level of service (but would not address a capital backlog of $5.8 billion). Warrington has said that Congress is not funding Amtrak at a rate sufficient to run the existing system -- about $520 million -- and that this cannot continue. He called $521 million a "non-starter."

Therefore, on March 29, Warrington will post 180-day discontinuation notices for all long-distance trains, which Warrington says require $200 million in federal operating support. This protects Amtrak's ability to discontinue trains October 1 if funding is not provided, but also gives the public an early warning about what is at stake. Clearly, public reaction to the announcement will influence Congress' response. Click here for our release on the announcement.

This is a sobering message at an important time in the development of passenger rail in this country. NARP supports keeping (and expanding) passenger rail in both major sectors -- corridors and long-distance -- and will work to see that Congress does what it takes to keep passenger rail a viable alternative to the massively funded aviation and highway modes.

As Warrington told one Congressional panel last year, Amtrak struggles to get 1% of transportation funding, but gets 99% of the attention and criticism. It's time for Congress to evaluate and state its priorities, without eliminating a nationwide network of train services.

President Bush is expected to release a proposed budget for fiscal 2003 on February 4. Details for individual cabinet departments (such as Transportation) won't be released until the next day. As reported here last week, the budget is likely to include a placeholder amount of funding for Amtrak, probably the current level of $521 million, while the Administration continues its process of deciding what sort of passenger rail service it thinks this country needs. There also are indications that dramatic cuts in other domestic programs, such as job training, will make our overall budget fight tougher.

Even before facing federal cuts, states have had an average 7-8% in revenue declines. Most states expect a 10% shortfall within the year, according to the National Governors Association. The latest state budget problem to hit Amtrak (and transit) is in Missouri. Gov. Bob Holden said last week he'd like to use a "rainy day" reserve fund maintained by the state for these and other programs, but that requires a two-thirds vote in the legislature. The governor is proposing $4.8 million for the two daily Amtrak round-trips between St. Louis and Kansas City. Normally, Amtrak and transit are funded out of the state Department of Transportation budget.

The Amtrak Reform Council will release its final report on February 7. The report likely will be a refinement of what the Council voted January 11. That included an admission that passenger trains need both operating and capital support. But until such funding is confirmed, the Council's reshuffling activities will not lead to better rail service in this country, and quite possibly could lead to less service.

Amtrak began running all its trains at 90 mph, over a 40-mile segment between Niles and Kalamazoo, Mich., on January 14. This uses an "Incremental Train Control System" that was installed by Amtrak, Michigan DOT, and the Federal Railroad Administration in 1999. Trains had been operating at 79 mph using the new system; the FRA approved running at the higher speed early last month.

The National Transportation Safety Board is closer to issuing a final report on the March 1999 City of New Orleans accident. A steel truck drove in front of the train at Bourbonnais, Ill., causing it to derail and catch fire, killing 11 passengers -- Amtrak's only passenger fatalities at a grade crossing.

At a February 5 hearing in Washington, NTSB will vote on a probable cause for the accident, and on recommendations for improvements. The investigation has taken far longer than usual, and has been hampered by conflicting testimony at fact-gathering hearings in 1999, and the death of a lead investigator in 2000. The Chicago Tribune reported that some discussion will focus on testimony that a malfunction caused the crossing's lights and gates to begin operating after they should have.

Amtrak will run a special race train on February 24, from Raleigh to Rockingham, N.C. (just north of Hamlet), for the Carolina 400 NASCAR race. The train departs Raleigh 8:00 am, returns 7:40 pm. Special fares are available; see the North Carolina DOT web site for details.

A fire on a wooden railroad trestle, just north of San Diego, disrupted Pacific Surfliner service the evening of January 26. Buses replaced train service until the line reopened the next day. The fire began as a grass fire nearby, and damaged some ties.

Amtrak's Capitol Corridor has a well regarded Transit Transfer Program, which began in May 2001. Under the program, conductors may issue transit passes good on AC Transit buses at Richmond, Berkely, Emeryville, Oakland, Hayward, and Fremont (except trans-bay buses), and Sacramento RT buses and light rail. Effective today, the program is expanded to Central Contra Costa Transit Authority County Connection buses at Martinez. Transfers issued to passengers have two parts -- one for immediate use, and one with longer-term validity that may be used for a return trip to the train station. Passengers interested in using BART trains at Richmond don't get free transfers, but may buy BART tickets in the lounge car at a 20% discount.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R.) this week unveiled an ambitious, $175-billion, 4,000-mile network of new transportation corridors that would include superhighways, high-speed railroads, freight railroads, and utility corridors. It would take 25-50 years to build. An exact network has not been proposed, but a preliminary map showed corridors sweeping wide arcs around major metropolitan areas, which limits their appeal as high-speed rail routes.

New York City Transit reopened its E subway line January 28, from Canal St. south to the World Trade Center station. This station had been a stub-end stop for the E trains before the September 11 attacks. Plans are under consideration to change the station's name. It was not damaged, but its street entrances had been in a closed-off area -- they are now near a public viewing area. Other subways remaining closed are the 1 line south of Chambers St., the N-R station at Cortlandt St., and the PATH line at Exchange Place and World Trade Center.

The Surface Transportation Board approved on January 30 a proposal submitted by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad to improve an 880-mile rail corridor from the Wyoming coal fields to Winona, Minn. The $1.4-billion proposal, which include 280 miles of new route in Wyoming and South Dakota, would be one of the largest rail construction projects in modern times in the U.S. Several types of building permits are still needed and there likely will be legal challenges, but the railroad hopes to start operation in 2007.

As expected, the Bush Administration's budget for fiscal 2003, released February 4, contains $521 million for Amtrak. The amount was characterized as a "placeholder" figure, pending further discussions within the Administration about passenger rail reauthorization during 2002. Unfortunately, the budget message accompanying the figures unnecessarily took cheap shots at Amtrak, its performance historically, and proposed high-speed rail bond bills -- without saying how the Administration would have handled things differently for the past 30 years. To see a letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta about the budget narrative, click here.

As reported last week, Amtrak says it believes that the current system cannot be operated on a federal grant of $521 million. It is calling for $1.2 billion in fiscal 2003.

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee held a hearing February 7 on transportation funding in fiscal 2003; the lead witness was Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson. Chairman Patty Murray (D.-Wash.) referred to Amtrak's budget request of $1.2 billion, and asked what reforms the Administration would propose that would allow Amtrak to survive at a level of $521 million. Jackson answered that "our policy challenge is to figure out what we need and how to pay for it." Ranking Republican Richard Shelby (Ala.) considered even the $521 million too high, saying that it was time to end "that drain on our taxes" and "start doing something that makes sense" (without saying what that was). Shelby followed that up with a call for more highway funding.

The Bush budget includes a total of $59.3 billion in transportation spending in 2003. In other rail areas, this includes $20 million for the Penn Station/Farley project in Manhattan (same as this year), and $23 million for high-speed rail corridor development and planning (down from $32.3 million this year). Transit would get $7.23 billion, an increase of 5.2%. Aviation would get $14.0 billion, which is basically flat from 2002 (not counting the $5 billion in emergency cash given to the airlines last fall).

A major area of contention will be highway funding, which is proposed to drop from $33 billion in 2002 to $24 billion. That's because of a part of the highway budget -- called "Revenue Aligned Budget Authority" or RABA -- created by the TEA-21 surface transportation law. In years of a boom economy, RABA takes gas-tax revenues that are larger than what TEA-21 predicted and puts them into highways. In a slack economy (like now), when gas-tax receipts are depressed, RABA works in reverse, lowering highway spending below the TEA-21 predictions. Leaders of the House and Senate authorizing committees have begun a "full court press" to block the $9 billion reduction.

The Amtrak Reform Council performed its last official act on February 7 and approved a restructuring plan for Amtrak. As expected, the plan proposed making three new entities out of Amtrak. First would be a government agency with planning and funding functions (for both other entities), and, possibly later, responsibility for franchising train operations. It also would hold Amtrak's current statutory right of access to freight railroads -- though the railroads have made clear they want to deal with one Amtrak, not several, and they presumably would have the legislative muscle to make that wish stick. Second would be a government corporation responsible for Northeast Corridor dispatching, maintenance, and implementing capital improvements. Some or all of its functions could be franchised out at a later time.

Third would be an operations company or agency. The operating part of today's Amtrak would be the sole operations company, operating trains under contract terms set out by the planning agency and by states (for short-distance routes). It would be the sole operator until such time a competitive bidding process (if any) was in place. "Competitive" does not mean competition that a consumer would see, but would be more like the British model (or cable television) -- franchisees would compete to have their proposals accepted, then the successful franchisee would become the monopoly operator of a given service. That said, franchises would be time-limited.

The plan says that after a 2-5 year transition period, federal operating funding would be limited to long-distance trains, and that states should provide operating funding for short-distance routes (for those that need it). The plan envisions the amount of funding needed for long-distance trains to be reduced over time by the operating company striving to meet the contract terms laid out by the planning agency, and/or by potential franchisees underbidding one another for the right to operate a given long-distance train.

The most useful facet of the ARC's work is an admission that passenger rail services cost money to develop, maintain, and operate. NARP has consistently said that the American government can't expect to "get something for nothing" by claiming that the private sector alone can handle rail -- even as the government does everything in its power to convince people to "choose" flying and driving, through its massive highway and aviation programs. However, the ARC leaves the responsibility of deciding how big a system to operate and fund to Congress.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans three hearings on intercity passenger rail. The first will be February 14; all ARC members have been invited as witnesses. At a March 6 hearing, the strengths and weaknesses of the 1997 law would be discussed.

The National Transportation Safety Board, in a meeting on February 5, formally determined a probable cause for the City of New Orleans grade-crossing accident at Bourbonnais, Ill., on March 15, 1999. The Board found that the probable cause was "the truck driver's inappropriate response to the grade crossing devices and his judgment, likely impaired by fatigue, that he could cross the tracks before the arrival of the train." An abstract of the Board's findings -- a final report will be issued later -- includes recommendations to railroads to include event recorders on new or upgraded crossings that indicate gate position, and to Amtrak to emphasize to emergency responders that accidents can involve "large quantities of burning diesel fuel."

A loaded steel truck drove in front of the train, which then struck the truck. The train derailed, caught fire, and 11 passengers were killed -- the only ones to die in a grade-crossing accident in Amtrak's history. According to a wire story last week, a report by the Illinois State Police said that in its analysis, the crossing gates were not working properly, and that the truck driver did not try to go around them (but did go through the flashing lights). The Board, however, determined that the gates "likely lowered as designed as the accident truck approached the crossing."

A new intermodal station opened in Everett, Wash., on February 5. It is currently served by Greyhound, Northwestern Trailways, and local transit -- Amtrak will move in this summer and Sounder commuter trains will begin service there in 2003. The station is located at 3201 Smith Ave., and features a career development center on its upper floors.

Adirondack service will be interrupted for a track work project on Canadian Pacific. On February 19-20-21, buses will replace the train north of Albany. Checked baggage will be handled normally, but bicycles traveling north of Albany those days will have to be boxed.

Similarly, a track work project on CSX will disrupt Sunset Limited service. Trains originating in Orlando on March 17 and 19 will originate in New Orleans instead (on March 18 and 20). Trains originating in Los Angeles on March 15 and 17 will run to New Orleans only. Amtrak is not offering alternative transportation in this case.

Kenosha Transit shut down its streetcar service on February 6, in anticipation of a proposed state budget that would sharply cut state aid to Wisconsin municipalities. The line may reopen late in May. Ridership on the line has been minimal, especially in the winter. The line goes from the Metral commuter rail station, through Kenosha's depressed central business district, to a lakeside area that is slated for development. But until the development occurs, there are few riders for the streetcars.

Amtrak gained market share again in January. For domestic aviation, ridership ("enplanements") dropped 14.7% from a year ago; passenger-miles were down 12.8%. The comparable measures for Amtrak were up 4.5% and 5.0%, respectively.

The Railroads Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing February 14. The witnesses were Amtrak Reform Council Chairman Gil Carmichael, Executive Director Thomas Till, and Council Members Nancy Connery, Jim Coston, Wendell Cox, and Charles Moneypenny. They gave the subcommittee an outline of their report's recommendations (which Moneypenny voted against) -- essentially, a splitting of operations and infrastructure, plus continuation of federal capital and operating grants, with no clear recommendation on the source of funding, the size of funding, or the size of the system to be operated.

Subcommittee Chairman Jack Quinn (R.-N.Y.) said, "... We as lawmakers must clearly define our expectations of rail service in this country. In 1971, Amtrak was created to perform a public service. Yet in 1997, we made a law saying that Amtrak must reach operational self-sufficiency. We have given Amtrak two mandates -- to act as a public service and as a profitable company ... The federal government must make a commitment to develop and fund passenger rail ..."

Committee Ranking Democrat James Oberstar (Minn.) said, "I opposed the formation of the ARC, but we had to agree to do it to save Amtrak. I respect Mr. Carmichael, but the Council from the very outset treated Amtrak unfairly ... None of these people [who have served as Amtrak president] was a hacker, but none could do the impossible -- operate rail service under these conditions at a profit. Amtrak inherited the cast-offs from the freight railroads ... The [DOT] Office of Inspector General says Amtrak worked at the [operational self-sufficiency] goal at the expense of basic service. The OIG said that to defer maintenance and mortgage assets in order to appear to make progress on operational self-sufficiency would be a hollow and short-lived victory ... The ARC misses the boat -- don't balkanize Amtrak to save it, or in the process, we will destroy it."

Subcommittee Ranking Democrat Bob Clement (Tenn.) said, "We need a national passenger rail system ... After September 11, people want rail service. Maybe it's the right time to face these challenges."

John Mica (R.-Fla.), author of a bill to pare rail service back to only the Northeast Corridor and Auto Train, said, "People who want a national system will have to pay the piper ... National service should be a cruise experience, not an Amtrak public-sector endurance trial."

Spencer Bachus (R.-Ala.) said, "We have high-speed corridors. We also have long-distance trains, which railfans ride for nostalgic reasons. In the short-term, perhaps we should pare back to the Northeast Corridor and a few other corridors, then decide what to do for the rest of the nation. If we want it, we will have to pay for it, and we haven't so far ..."

Jerry Nadler (D.-N.Y.) said, "Amtrak is important to security. September 11 highlighted what we should have known already; that rail must be preserved. Congress should bite the bullet and support it ... Congress very irrationally mandated operational self-sufficiency and created the ARC in order to reach a foregone conclusion. It is a disaster to break up and privatize it ... Rail subsidies are not a burden on government resources. The DOT gets $59 billion, with less than 1% going to Amtrak. Highways get half, yet who says highways are bankrupting the country? Trains are energy-efficient and friendly to the environment. We should encourage passenger and freight use to reduce dependency on foreign oil. We should spread rail to all parts of the country ... We should spread travel around to other modes and not leave one mode vulnerable to attack. The federal government didn't mandate that airlines should be profitable before giving them $15 billion in aid. Why hold Amtrak to a different standard?"

Elijah Cummings (D.-Md.) said, "Many infrastructure improvements were delayed" by Amtrak, due to rising operating costs and reduced funding during the time of the operational self-sufficiency mandate. "Rising operating costs and less funding is a recipe for disaster ... States can't do it for an interstate operation. States cannot afford to pay for Amtrak. It won't matter who operates trains if the infrastructure needs aren't met."

The Railroads Subcommittee will have two follow-up hearings. The next, March 6, will consider the "Successes and Failures of Amtrak and of the Amtrak Reform Accountability Act of 1997;" the last, on April 11, will consider "Passenger Rail in America: What Should It Look Like?"

Amtrak eliminated checked baggage service at San Bernardino, Cal., effective today. The station is served by the Southwest Chief.

Downeaster service to Saco, Me., begins February 19. There will be a ceremony, hosted by the mayor, at 2:00 pm to welcome the first train.

A bill allowing Ohio to join the Midwest Regional Rail Compact was approved February 12 by the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee. Bill S.B.212 now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

A bill that would have allowed Colorado voters to consider state funding for transit and passenger rail was killed in committee on February 12. Bill HR-1248, the Multimodal Transportation Funding Bill, was rejected by the state House Affairs, Veterans, and Military Committee on a party-line vote. ColoRail, the passenger group, supported the bill. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Alice Madden (D.-Boulder) said she'd try again next year.

Kenosha Transit's streetcar service, shut down on February 6 due to anticipated city budget problems and weak winter ridership, will be restored weekends only starting tomorrow. Daily service will run in the summer (Memorial Day-Labor Day).

As of this morning, 25 Senators have signed a letter to the Senate Budget Committee, asking that the fiscal 2003 budget resolution include Amtrak's full request of $1.2 billion. This is what Amtrak says it needs to continue running its entire train network, while Congress makes longer term decisions on passenger rail policy. The 25 are Hollings (D.-S.C.), Schumer (D.-N.Y.), Dorgan (D.-N.Dak.), Reid (D.-Nev.), Cleland (D.-Ga.), Durbin (D.-Ill.), Mikulski (D.-Md.), Biden (D.-Del.), Kennedy (D.-Mass.), Kerry (D.-Mass.), Clinton (D.-N.Y.), Leahy (D.-Vt.), Sarbanes (D.-Md.), Carper (D.-Del.), Jeffords (I.-Vt.), Rockefeller (D.-W.Va.), Torricelli (D.-N.J.), Feinstein (D.-Cal.), Boxer (D.-Cal.), Corzine (D.-N.J.), Feingold (D.-Wis.), Specter (R.-Pa.), Snowe (R.-Me.), Dodd (D.-Conn.), Breaux (D.-La.). The letter is intended to be sent sometime this week, and Senate offices wishing to sign on should contact the Senate Commerce majority staff at 202/224-9000.

Amtrak began the process this week of laying off some station agents. This is in connection with Amtrak's announcement of February 1 that in order to make it through the end of fiscal 2002 (to September 30), it would -- among other things -- seek to cut $110 million in operating costs. Included in that is a plan to lay off about 140 station workers at the 73 "lowest-performing" stations. The Amtrak board directed that no station be de-staffed entirely, so it appears that more than 50 stations will be staffed only five days a week and thus lose checked baggage service. NARP has asked the board to consider preserving daily staffing and baggage service at more stations by completely unstaffing other stations. Normally, a "half-staffed" station is locked whenever staff is not present, whereas some unstaffed stations have caretakers that open waiting rooms for all trains.

Among the criteria used by Amtrak to select the "lowest performing" stations was a high ratio of labor costs to revenues generated at a station, and the number of trains serving that station. Reducing staff at stations that have a comparatively lower ratio of labor costs to revenues generated -- to serve the interest of regional balance -- would reduce the savings to Amtrak in this round of lay-offs, and presumably would lead to even more station staff laid off in total.

Clearly, Amtrak is facing some very painful decisions -- painful to workers and to passengers -- in its attempt to live within its limited means in 2002. But, unlike past attempts to survive budget crises that involved cutting long-distance services, this time Amtrak seems committed to a national network. Of course, that can change in fiscal 2003, if Congress has not by then addressed the fundamental mismatch between Amtrak's mission of nationwide service and its usual funding level.

Arizona Senator John McCain (R.) on February 15 introduced S.1958, a bill to split up Amtrak into several pieces. These would include an operations unit, a maintenance unit, and a reservations unit, all to be privatized within four years.  The Federal Railroad Administration would be directed to franchise out individual routes. States would be given greater financial responsibility, and any route that needed operating funding after October 1, but did not get it from a state, would be dropped (including long-distance routes). But states would have flexibility to use their federal surface transportation funding for passenger rail (a good concept endorsed by the Senate three times in the 1990's, but killed each time by the House).

The U.S. Customs and Immigration agents at Port Huron, Mich., are again inspecting passengers on board Amtrak trains. For much of the period after the September 11 attacks, through February 18, those agents stayed at the Port Huron border crossing at all times, meaning that passengers entering the U.S. (westbound on Amtrak's International) were put on buses at Sarnia, Ont., to cross the border and then reboard their same train at Port Huron.

Amtrak is introducing "quiet cars" on the Sacramento-Oakland-San Jose Capitol Corridor trains. As is now common practice on most Northeast Corridor trains, one car per train set on the Capitols will be designated as the quiet car, where cell phones may not be used and where sound devices on beepers and laptop computers must be turned down.

A water heater explosion injured four passengers and one conductor on the Southwest Chief on February 17. The westbound train was just arriving at Raton, N.Mex. The coach where the explosion occurred was heavily damaged and set out of the train, which was delayed over three hours. Amtrak is investigating the cause of the unusual event, including examining maintenance records and inspecting water heaters on other cars.

Amtrak will offer a 30% discount on the "best available regular adult rail fares," to be called "Miles of Smiles." It can be booked from February 28 to May 19, for travel from March 7 to June 15 (except March 28-April 2 and May 24-28). Tickets are non-refundable and must be booked at least seven days before travel.

California Gov. Gray Davis (D.), after a few years of tepid support, is now supporting the full funding amount for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. In 2000-01, Davis approved $5 million of the agency's $10-million request; in 2001-02 it was $1 million out of $14 million; but for 2002-03, he is proposing $8.5 million. That comes despite worsening state budget problems. The agency says that will be enough to produce a draft environmental impact statement, by June 2003, for a high-speed rail system from San Diego north to Sacramento and the Bay Area, with some running above 200 mph.

The district attorney in Queens, N.Y., has charged 18 Amtrak maintenance workers from Sunnyside Yard with criminal possession of stolen property and other charges. The workers are alleged to have made $100,000 in calls from on-board phones, including 47,000 minutes in long-distance and international calls, from 1997 to 2000, using credit cards they found on the trains that apparently were lost by passengers. Some of the workers would face up to 15 years in prison.

The Amtrak board voted February 22 to name John Robert Smith its new chairman. Smith is a longtime board member and mayor of Meridian, Miss. He replaces Tommy Thompson as chairman, who resigned in 2000. Thompson had been governor of Wisconsin, but became President Bush's Secretary of Health and Human Services last year.

The acting board chairman after Thompson's resignation had been Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts. Dukakis remains on the board and will go back to being vice chairman of the board, as he was earlier. There still is a vacancy on the Amtrak board (Thompson's seat).

Smith said in a statement, "I believe very strongly that our country's economic competitiveness and the mobility of all Americans depends upon a vital national passenger rail system." Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) said in a wire story, "I am especially pleased that a Mississippian has been elected to this very important post. He certainly has the strength and commitment to lead Amtrak through the challenges before it."

Amtrak has begun the process of laying off some station agents. This is in connection with Amtrak's announcement of February 1 that in order to make it through the end of fiscal 2002 (to September 30), it would -- among other things -- seek to cut $110 million in operating costs. Included in that is a plan to lay off about 140 station workers at the 73 "lowest-performing" stations, effective March 1.

The Amtrak board has directed that no station be de-staffed entirely, so it appears that more than 50 stations will be staffed only five days a week and thus lose checked baggage service. NARP has asked the board to consider preserving daily staffing and baggage service at more stations by completely unstafffing other stations. Normally, a "half-staffed" station is locked whenever staff is not present, whereas some unstaffed stations have caretakers who open waiting rooms for all trains. In any event, in the case of a late train, a station agent will remain on duty until it arrives.

Among the criteria used by Amtrak to select the "lowest performing" stations was a high ratio of labor costs to revenues generated at a station, and the number of trains serving that station.

[Continues with text from #231 of February 22.]