WASHINGTON — A group of 11 U.S. Senators sent Amtrak’s Richard Anderson a letter earlier this month, seeking the passenger railroad CEO’s “firm commitment that Amtrak will abide by its statutory purpose — maintaining a truly national network for our rail system.”
Those signing the letter include the bipartisan group of six lawmakers from Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico who secured a $50 million appropriation for Southwest Chief route improvements in the 2019 federal budget, compelling Amtrak to spend a $3 million grant match. They are joined by five Democrats: Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin III, Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, Montana’s Jon Tester, and Dick Durbin of Illinois.
The letter, available here, reminds Anderson that Amtrak was created to reach every community, “regardless of how rural it may be” and that the company must provide “a web of essential connections that bind our country together.”
Responding to congressional testimony, fleet and service planning documents, and language in Amtrak’s 2020 budget request that reveals current management’s preference for short-distance corridors and dismissive attitude toward long distance routes, the document asks Anderson for answers on seven bullet points of concern. They are:
— Questionable cost allocation accounting, citing a Trains Magazine report [“Amtrak’s Money Mystery,” January 2019].
— Specific plans to either truncate long-distance routes or attempt to have states pay for them.
— Details on any discussions Amtrak has had with host railroads or states about adding short-distance frequencies.
— A challenge to Amtrak’s claim that demand for its interstate services is declining, citing figures indicating an increase “in spite of worsening on-time performance, capacity reductions and other changes to service levels.”
— The impact of removal of ticket agents at many stations, and a question why “Amtrak calculates ridership boardings on weekly totals on routes that do not run daily.” (Four of the letter’s signees represent states through which both the triweekly Cardinal and Sunset Limited operate.)
— Policies that would help Amtrak improve host railroad on-time performance.
— A request for a timeline to put 25 new Viewliner II sleeping cars into service, noting that “sleeper cars provide approximately 40-50% of the revenue on many long distance trains.”
The lawmakers’ letter asks Anderson to respond by April 29.
I think Martin has nailed it… from a CEO’s perspective, what you measure is what will be emphasized in the results.
Trains do use less fuel in relation to highway transportation because of their much lower encountered rolling resistance. However, it is also true that freight rail has become less fuel efficient in an overall sense because they no longer serve smaller markets directly, necessitating either a dray or bulk transfer. In passenger transportation, the fuel advantage per passenger is negligible except in high density corridors.
Current AMTRAK financing requires the States to pick up more of the operating deficit for short distance trains, such as the Wolverine and Empire State service, than for the long distance trains. Anderson favors short distance trains rather than the long distance trains for this reason. It makes his performance look good if he can shift more of the financial burden of operating the trains to the States.
Braden, Go ahead and laugh as much as you need to, but the “nook and crannies” that you mentioned are served because they happen to be on a route between large city pairs and not because Amtrak is specifically just trying to serve them. It is good happenstance on their part that they are served as it does create a vital transportation choice not only for the particular “nook or cranny” but also for quite a large surrounding area within every direction of each particular stop.
John Decarolis —- Yes you hit the nail on the head, squarely describing SOME of the obstacles facing any Amtrak CEO. Without diminishing any of your points, allow me to add some of my own: (4) The persistent gap between revenue and expenses that won’t go away (5) The diminished freight rail network, fewer routes, more congested with freight trains, freights operating at slower speeds (6) the ongoing lie that trains save fuel over other modes – indirect routes (ever look at an actual map of the former Great Northern?), equipment positioning, non-revenue moves, crew positioning, all take fuel (7) The inconvenient fact that in 48 years the air transport has become greatly more connected while the population afraid to fly tends to diminish over the generations..
I’m not a fan of the current CEO of Amtrak. That said, think about what any Amtrak CEO has to deal with: 1. this “you are a nationwide rail service provider, so why aren’t you (etc)”; 2. The not-too-long-ago nonsense of Florida’s John Mica and his obsession with Amtrak food service; 3. certain administrations whose imbibing of partisan Kool-Aid involves periodic attempts to shut down Amtrak…until Congress can come up with a consistent view, with related funding, of Amtrak’s purpose, we’ll see more of this. Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it…
Maybe this is the opportunity we have all sought for Amtrak and Congress to sit down and actually create–for the first time–a coherent, long-range, nationwide network plan with stable funding that makes economic, transportation, and political sense. Far-fetched? Maybe, but then we’re about to see a UP 4-8-8-4 steaming across Wyoming again within the next few months, so what seems improbable isn’t necessarily impossible.
Arthur. The names of the politicians are on their letter they sent to Amtrak. The link to the letter is in the story.
The response from Amtrak will be interesting. I hope we get to see it.
After that, it will be up to Congress to decide what to do the requests from these Senators.
Hopefully they will request input from their constituents.
If our “government” is not willing to commit to the original Amtrak concept, Amtrak could die a slow death. And I am not encouraged by the manner of representation currently being displayed on Capitol Hill.
To clarify: the bipartisan group of U.S. Senators who pushed the Southwest Chief-specific appropriation and also signed this letter are Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo,), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
Tell him to go back to the airlines because that is what he is trying to do.
I have to laugh…. Amtrak sole purpose was to relieve the Class 1’s of passenger service. Not serve every nook and cranny in the US……..
The names of the six Republicans who make up the bipartisan group of eleven senators reported as seeking answers from Anderson in the letter appear to be missing from the article. Who are they?
I hope they can get some answers. “propeller head” and his gang seem to only want to cut Amtrak and make it not a pleasure to ride, so they can just dump it. I see them as Carl Icahn who stripped TWA to the bones and then walked away.
Penelope – So what if Amtrak serves Texas? Amtrak has about zero to do with anything in that state. Really, the two Texas senators have more things on their minds.
Ms. Vinson, also noticeably absent from the list of the 11 plus 2 are 37 other senators including those from New York & California. They ALL should be asking the same questions of Amtrak!
Noticeably absent are the two U.S. senators from Texas, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, whose state is served by The Sunset Limited three times a week and is the longest segment of the train’s route.