WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and two other members of the Illinois congressional delegation have sent Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson a letter expressing their unhappiness over the recent incident in which passengers using wheelchairs were quoted a price of $25,000 to travel from Chicago to Bloomington, Ill.
Amtrak, which initially stood by that price as the cost of modifying equipment to accommodate extra wheelchair passengers, subsequently reversed course and accommodated the passengers at no additional charge. [See “Amtrak backs away from $25,000 charge, will carry Illinois passengers in wheelchairs at regular price,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 21, 2020]. At the time, Duckworth — a U.S. Army veteran who lost both legs during service in Iraq — commented about the situation on Twitter and asked for a meeting with Anderson.
In the letter sent Monday, Sens. Duckworth and Dick Durbin and Rep. Jesus Garcia, all Democrats, wrote, “The time has come for Amtrak to hold itself accountable for making intercity passenger rail readily accessible to all Americans. … Amtrak’s decision to shift accommodation costs onto disabled commuters undermined trust with loyal customers and damaged the Corporation’s brand.” While acknowledging support of Amtrak’s reconsideration of its initial stance, the letter adds, “We hope that this unfortunate incident will serve as a turning point in the long-standing effort to make sure Amtrak customers with disabilities can travel as seamlessly as any other passenger on the national network.”
The full letter is available here.
ALEX – Thanks for your response and further information. I stand by my comments. I don’t consider my posts to be letting Amtrak off the hook or deflecting criticism by pointing the finger at the airlines. Because I don’t see what Amtrak is doing wrong. Its trains and restrooms are far more accessible to disabled persons than airplanes are. I’m at a loss as to what further measures Amtrak is supposed to take.
This all started with Amtrak’s PR disaster of proposing to charge to take out seats for wheelchairs. Something the airlines don’t do.
Yes, Alex, I agree with you that on the ground airports are fully accessible. As are new train stations. It’s quite expensive to build a bridge across the tracks with an elevator at each end. At Milwaukee and Sturtevant (Wisconsin) this has been done, and it would be done at Milwaukee Airport rail station in the event of adding schedules to the Hiawatha.
Charles Landey,
Airlines don’t use “wheelchair spaces” because they’d be unsafe. The airlines would have to transfer every disabled passenger into a special wheelchair capable of being locked down to the floor. Plus the space would be unused at times and there wouldn’t be enough of them at others. You want to be able to serve all customers at times that work best for them. Most airports are fully accessible now.
Southwest actually has one of the better seating plans for the disabled that I have seen. They board first and thus pick the first row or two, compared to some airlines where they must navigate much farther down the aisles to their “assigned” seat. I’ve actually seen many more wheelchair passengers on SWA compared to other airlines, and I have a hunch this is part of the reason.
At any rate, it seems as though you are deflecting any criticism of Amtrak’s inaccessibility by pointing to the airlines. It’s about time we stop pointing to other sectors and saying “but maybe they’re worse” as an excuse for ours.
Every American should be reasonably accommodated on each mode of transportation. If that is not happening on a government-funded service, then it is time for the government to step up to the plate with the funding to close that gap.
This is all part of the passive/aggressive behavior Amtrak is going to push on Congress.
Congress tells them they have to make money, so Amtrak pushes more costs of business unto the fares.
Congressmen make a big public stink about it, and Amtrak will simply flip them the bird and say “give me more money because of this mandate” and it will be in the next appropriation bill so the offended congressperson can say they took action on behalf of the public.
Repeat and rinse.
Within a year we will get another umbrage because Amtrak wanted some awful amount of cash for some service requested and the cycle will repeat.
I don’t usually agree with Charles, but in many ways he is right, I am not sure why there are different rules for Amtrak than Airlines. I do believe in doing as best as possible to accommodate people with disabilities and the airlines should have to do a lot more.
ALEX – It’s time for Sen. Duckworth, Congress and the American people to start asking questions about the airlines, which carry far more people (including the senator) than Amtrak does. Wheelchair access on the airlines consists of cramming disabled people into seats barely accessible for the most physically fit among us. Amtrak even now does far better than that so why are we picking on Amtrak?
Amtrak is everyone’s piñata. It’s the airlines that are the real offenders. Southwest Airlines, which is profitable, has 143 seats per airplane. Have Southwest rip out six or eight seats per plane to create wheelchair space. Then rip out another eight seats to expand the tiny pissoir into an accessible bathroom. The airlines would say, no can do, stop asking us to do it. Yet that’s what Amtrak and local transit (far more financially distressed) are expected to do.
Almost every member of Congress is a frequent flier on commercial air transport. Why don’t these people wake up and look around them?
While Amtrak’s handling of this incident was decidedly poor, Congress should recognize that they are the source of Amtrak’s capital improvement funds.
While the ADA has made great strides for disabled Americans since it was signed into law 30 years ago, it is time for Congress to step up and finish what they started: supply the money needed by Amtrak and other local transit agencies to finish the job of getting transit ADA-compliant everywhere. I would suggest a well-funded competitive grant program administered by the DOT with the goal of filling in as many of the remaining ADA gaps, as fast as possible.