Monday morning rail news:
— Amtrak, which normally handles 100,000 passengers a day, is down to about 4,000 a day because of the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Richard Anderson told employees during his weekly Town Hall session on Friday. “We are running trains where we have more staff than customers,” Anderson said. While the $1.018 billion Amtrak is receiving from the coronavirus relief act is “essential,” he said, “we are burning about $50 million a week in cash.” About 57% of all departures have been suspended nationwide, including about 77% in the Northeast Corridor, he said. “We are going to be a very different railroad when we come out the other on the other side of this; we will be 20% smaller … We will build up from where we are as customers buy tickets. The hope is that people will realize we’re much better than airlines in shorter-haul markets because we don’t pack ‘em in like the airlines do.” Trains News Wire obtained a recording of the online Town Hall session.
— A federal judge has removed a class action lawsuit against BNSF Railway over asbestos exposure in Libby, Mont., from federal court and remanded to Cascade County, Mont., District Court, KECI-TV reports. Nearly 200 plaintiffs have filed suit against the railroad, alleging it caused harm by transporting asbestos-laced vermiculate from Libby [see “News Wire Digest Second Section for Friday, March 13”]. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris wrote in his judgment that the federal court accepting jurdisidction “would transform a distinctly local issue … into a national issue.”
— While ridership has plummeted, on-time performance has risen for the Long Island Railroad — and the two are not unrelated, Newsday reports. March on-time performance was 95.3%, tying the best figure in eight years. Last year, the LIRR attributed 23% of its nearly 19,000 delays to passenger loading and unloading times, but with ridership down by as much as 97%, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Patrick J. Foye, that problem has been greatly reduced. The LIRR is currently running about 30% fewer trains than normal.
— An 18-year-old Chicago man has been arrested and charged with murder after allegedly pushing a 29-year-old into the path of a Chicago Transit Authority train last week. The Chicago Tribune reports Ryan Munn was arrested Friday night for allegedly punching and pushing 29-year-old Mamadou Balde, a Marine veteran, into a passing train at the Jackson station on the Red Line, killing Balde.
— Despite torrential storms and tornados in the South over Easter weekend, the region’s two major railroads reported little damage. On Monday, a Norfolk Southern representative tells Trains that the railroad experienced disruptions in northeastern Alabama and northern Georgia from downed trees and a minor washout Sunday evening. That damage had been repaired by Monday with service resuming. A CSX Transportation representative said some traffic had slowed from downed trees in the region, but that there were no major disruptions.
— — Correspondent Bob Johnston contributed to this report.
Airlines has been affected more so then Amtrak
Paul Smith:
Your comments are beyond the pale – especially your closing remark that the citizens of these United States “would be better off without the long-distance [passenger] trains.”
I find your opinion quite reprehensible, almost to the point where I’m feeling physically ill.
I’ve worked half-a-century (so far) as an advocate for rail-based passenger operations of all sorts, from streetcars to Limiteds. I’ve spent my time and, often, my personal funds supporting places like Las Vegas, New Mexico and Havre, Montana so they might retain a viable, all-weather connection to the outside world. I’ve believed, deeply and sincerely, that things like energy efficiency and environmental stewardship and quality-of-life were were important issues which deserved a place in the national discourse alongside mindless speed and the consumerist mentality.
Now, because of a situation beyond our control, we as a people are rapidly approaching a crossroads; a point in time when it might be possible to overcome so many of the negative aspects of this damnable Drive-or-Fly Society we’ve spawned, only to read comments from someone in a RAILROAD PUBLICATION that we would be “better off” – BETTER OFF! – without any national network intercity passenger train services, whatsoever!
Not that Amtrak was originally designed to fail, mind you, or that it has never been allowed to grow, or that the national network hasn’t been given a chance to reach critical mass, or the proper investments aren’t being made which would make the long-distance routes equal players with the much-vaunted Northeast Corridor. No, it’s that this is the year 2020 (as if that gives us bragging rights) and we should come out of the pandemic embracing the idea that a return to normalcy includes building more roads and airports – and continuing the taxpayers‘ endless subsidy of those modes – and to blazes with anybody who may wish for nothing more than a way out of the mess we’ve created.
I’ve spent the majority of my life to-date trying to convince people, including elected officials, that we need to develop a comprehensive, uniform transportation policy (or, more precisely, a transport/energy/environmental policy) which would be future-minded. Is that all for naught?! Do we honestly believe – really and truly – that our children and grandchildren, who very likely had never even seen what a blue sky looked like before, will mindlessly return to smog-filled air? They are simply going to believe the “okay, Boomer” crowd when we tell them that no alternatives are even possible, much less available?
Wow.
I can tell you this: the process may honestly kill me, keeping me from seeing with my own eyes the eventual changes which WILL COME to this world, but there’s absolutely no way I’m going to give up now and leave transportation planning to those who would destroy even what little we now have, for NOTHING!
Garl Boyd Latham
I have riden most of the western long distance trains and on each one of them I met numerous people who told me that even though the trains were late that the train was the best available transportation they had, they just wish it was more frequent.
According to Amtrak’s monthly performance report, in FY19 Amtrak had an average of 89,099 riders per day. Through February of FY20 the average daily ridership was 86,659. If ridership today is 4% of recent historical averages, the decline in ridership is even more than the company was acknowledging last week or 10 days ago.
“The hope is that people will realize we’re much better than airlines in shorter haul markets…..” This is the future of passenger rail in the United States. And it is where the lion’s share of the additional Federal monies should go.
Amtrak should use this crisis to eliminate most if not all of the long-haul trains. They carry less than 1% of intercity travelers. Maybe a couple of the trains could/should be preserved as tourist routes, but the country would be better off without the long-distance trains.
GEORGE – This is Amtrak’s opportunity, as bailout money is essentially unlimited and because deficits no longer matter. Money is now printed faster than the supply of ink for the printing presses can keep up.
So, GEORGE, what’s the chance that our leaders will follow your advice? As between zero and 0.0000001%, my wager is on zero.
“We will be 20% smaller” – Never let a crisis go to waste. How about try for 20% larger because “we don’t pack ’em in like the airlines do” ?
If loading and unloading more passengers causes delays on the Long Island why don’t they allow enough time in the schedule for that.
I agree, George, at least 20% larger!
While LD trains may carry less than 1% of intercity travelers, they carry a much larger percent in many of the rural markets they serve, and probably perform better financially than state funded and NEC trains when state subsidies and NEC ROW are included.
Eric, I think the case originated in state courts and the plaintiffs tried to get it moved to federal courts. The federal judge it sending it back.
Can a federal court order a state court to take a case? Or do I misinterpret something here? Seems that with separation of powers and the involvement of a federally regulated industry, the local court could push back to the federal court.