WASHINGTON — Amtrak President Stephen Gardner’s presentation Thursday at a House committee hearing included justification for potential service cuts, related to the passenger railroad’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement, that may be announced next week.
Gardner was taking part in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Rail Subcommittee hearing, “Leveraging Infrastructure and Jobs Act: Plans for Expanding Intercity Passenger Rail.” Also testifying were heads of agencies or regional commissions representing the Northeast Corridor, California, and the Southeast, who discussed operating realities and prospects for expansion in their respective regions.
In the document accompanying his opening remarks, Gardiner says, “Amtrak must comply with the federal mandate effective Jan, 4, 2022 that employees of government contractors be fully vaccinated.” The mandate, however, was overturned by a federal judge on Tuesday and has been challenged in court by Amtrak’s operating unions, and the impact frequency-reduction plans remains to be seen. No lawmaker asked for clarification during the hearing.
“This will likely necessitate temporary frequency reductions, primarily for our long-distance services,” Gardner said in the statement, “…because of the relatively small crew bases at intermediate points along multi-day long-distance routes where conductors and engineers report to work. At some of these crew bases across our network, we have a relatively high percentage of unvaccinated employees. If those employees chose to not get vaccinated by the deadline we will not have sufficient trained staff to support current service frequency on affected routes.” That deadline was Wednesday, Dec. 8 [see “Amtrak limits Track Friday sale, service reductions possible in January as unions file suit,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 29, 2021].
The statement adds, “We are currently determining what service reductions will be necessary and intend to communicate them publicly by next week in order to ensure that we can rebook customers to the remaining frequencies we feel confident we can fully staff. Our goal, of course, will be to have as few impacts to service as possible … and we will be prepared to reinstate frequencies as soon as the number of available employees permits.” In remarks at the hearing, Gardner said Amtrak would “proactively reduce” service in January but would “plan to restore daily service by March.”
Other significant testimony
In other aspects of Thursday’s hearing:
— Julie White, North Carolina’s deputy secretary of multimodal transportation and chairwoman of the Southeast Corridor Commission, stressed how important Jobs Act funding would be to restore a direct route between Richmond, Va., and Raleigh, N.C., on CSX’s abandoned S-Line right-of-way. Piecemeal funding has paid for almost 25 years of studies, and more recently, land acquisition, but not construction. “Building this passenger route is a win-win for both passenger and freight because it takes trains off of the CSX line they are running on now,” she said.
— Donna DiMartino, manager of California’s LOSSAN corridor, reiterated her agency’s concern about Amtrak’s lack of cost transparency.
“When I asked Amtrak about the cost of an additional train to support our high ridership in the holiday season, Amtrak was not able to provide that information in a timely manner,” she said in response to a question from a California congresswoman. “We chose to run the train not understanding exactly what it would cost, and — this phrase was used earlier — that certainly is no way to run a railroad. We are hopeful that the cost formula update will help solve these issues in the future.”
— Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission, was asked by Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson (D) how he traveled to Washington. Ross said he had taken the Crescent from Meridian, Miss., and the train “was an hour and a half late at its first stop after leaving New Orleans on time.” In response to the concern of Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) that there was no Amtrak service between Memphis and Nashville, Ross touted the benefits a multi-state commission can offer, and invited his state to join Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in the SRC. The governors and state legislatures of all states would have to agree on such a partnership.
— A number of Republican lawmakers repeatedly asked whether Amtrak new route expansion would be profitable. Amtrak’s Gardner responded, “We don’t measure success by farebox recovery alone; our mission is to work with our state partners to create mobility.”
Other witnesses included California State Transportation Secretary David Kim and Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit CEO and chairman of the Northeast Corridor Commission. Recorded video of the almost 2½-hour hearing and links to witness testimony is available on the Transportation Committee’s website.
In respect to the integrity of the state-supported corridors and National Network, Congress must demand that until Amtrak is off the federal dole:
1) Any extension of a Board member’s term shall not be automatic, or, would based upon a wink and back slap; but rather, require approval by the appropriate House and Senate committees.
2) Any internal promotion or external recruitment would also require full disclosure and approval by the appropriate House and Senate committees.
3) Congress shall require external accounting firm to validate Amtrak’s cost allocations and assumptions supporting such decisions.
What should have perked up the ears of Congress attending the recent House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Rail Subcommittee was the testimony from LOSSAN, that despite the federal bailout of Amtrak during COVID-19 and the impending $61 billion, Amtrak’s Board and corporate management have learned absolutely nothing. Instead, such largesse without caveats and controls has only encouraged Amtrak’s alleged leadership to perpetuate its “shell game” to befuddle state corridor directors rightfully seeking a modicum of cost transparency.
If Amtrak is ever to act more like a legitimate-and viable on-going business concern will require Congress to stipulate how current and proposed members of the Board must fulfill the intent of initial Railpax legislation to bring something to the table beyond New Jersey/New York clout.
With that long delayed political act achieved, than such a revamped Board can demand its corporate management to evidence parallel competencies in railroad operations, customer experience, labor relations, etc.
Until then, the lack of controls on the taxpayers dowery in the billions looks more like a Madoff scheme to continue funding the NEC at the expense of the National Network. Unlike current corporate management hanger-ons, apparently Graham Claytor was the only president who knew railroad operations and finance; as such, could lead Congress to accept the decisions he previously determined.
I must have missed something I thought I saw Democrats dancing around unmasked when the Democratic president signed the big spending bill. The highway contractors around here are salivating with the promises of big contracts.
Why wasn’t Gardner asked why there have not been any posted openings for T&E for the last four weeks? You cannot run trains if no openings have been listed.
I hope someone told Rep Cohen that there once was rail passenger service between Memphis, Jackson, and Nashville (NC&StL), and there were trains for travelers (CITY OF MEMPHIS, to Nashville in the morning and back to Memphis in the evening, and an overnight train). However travelers left the train for faster modes (air travel time Memphis to Nashville is about 40 minutes) and the NC line through Jackson (second largest city in West Tennessee) was later abandoned.
Lawmakers (some of both parties who may be boring and/or disgusting – a definition of creep) ask such questions to get things on the record. Bureaucrats (such as myself years ago) give vague and/or careful answers because we often don’t completely control outcomes. Passenger trains lose money, but some of our fellow citizens have deemed them necessary to promote the general welfare in their region. Everyone wants straight talk but, to borrow a famous move line, we sometimes can’t handle the truth. Truth must start somewhere; in this case it should start and/or continue with Amtrak.
Mr. Gless, you are right on the money. And the Repuglican creeps that asked about profitability knew the services won’t be and that Gardner was going to give the answer he gave. I’ll add this. Once these LDs go tri-weekly AGAIN, this time it will be the prelude to discontinuance.
Republican ‘lawmakers’ never miss an opportunity do they? Got to keep the oil and highway construction contributions coming into their campaign coffers.
And I want to ask, how many airports make a profit without local, state and federal contributions to their operations…as in landing systems, air traffic control…the list goes on.
Irrelevant. Huge numbers of the travelling public use the interstates and airlines. No more than 5% of the public has ever ridden or will ever ride Amtrak, no matter how much you pipe-dreamers wish and whine, and most of them are in the NEC.
PS: practically every inch of blacktop in WV was appropriated by or named for Robert Byrd, who when I last checked was a DemonRat and a KKK official.