Rail Passenger Association unmet expectations

[daybeers]

@neroden Is this an ADA violation? no lower level coach space available on this train.

Yes, it is. Hmmmm wonder where RPA is on this one...probably won't do anything about it

 

[jis]

Yes, it is. Hmmmm wonder where RPA is on this one...probably won't do anything about it

Yeah I think they are taking a short breather after making sure that Amtrak is no longer a for profit corporation and its first priority is providing service and not cutting cost. Now if only the Administration would execute on it.

 

[daybeers]

Yeah I think they are taking a short breather after making sure that Amtrak is no longer a for profit corporation and its first priority is providing service and not cutting cost. Now if only the Administration would execute on it.

I think running two revenue cars on a LD train is a top priority for an advocacy organization. This is why I've never had much faith in RPA actually taking a firm stance against Amtrak.

 

[neroden]

Yes, it is. Hmmmm wonder where RPA is on this one...probably won't do anything about it

They're a bit distracted but I'd suggest emailing one of the staff members with the specific photo.

It looks like it actually has a coach. If it didn't I would say add the note that it's an extremely illegal ADA violation, and they'd probably follow up. But that does look like a coach, which makes it legal.

The RPA staff honestly don't always notice things unless we bring them to their attention, they're very busy.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

They're a bit distracted but I'd suggest emailing one of the staff members with the specific photo.

It looks like it actually has a coach. If it didn't I would say add the note that it's an extremely illegal ADA violation, and they'd probably follow up. But that does look like a coach, which makes it legal.

The RPA staff honestly don't always notice things unless we bring them to their attention, they're very busy.

As a 30 plus year member (became a member when I was 16) I’ve sent them very concise, respectful, considerate emails with examples stated. They haven’t written back or acknowledged me for about 5+years. What’s interesting, I put NARP in the search function of my email yesterday. It literally pulled up 20 years of updates and emails. The tone of RPA/NARP correspondences have changed so much. Literally going through 1000 emails, back in the Russ Capon, David Johnson era, the emails were all concise, informative, very little fluff or personal commentary such as vlogs by RPA staff. Almost no requests for donations.

Fast forward to the last few years. So many many requests for donations, weekly at times, asking to be left in your estate ( really?) vlogs by staff, tooting of their horn. Yes they still do a great job lobbying Congress for money but very little day to day advocacy for citizens like me in the Midwest.

At this point in time enough people consider Amtrak's future grim under this management, enough people that it’s time for RPA to broach the subject. Soon enough a Congress won’t be as sympathetic to the nationwide network. I could see a scenario where Gardner calls RPA out in front of Congress saying the network trains are bleeding him dry. Who’s going to call out who first? It’s plausible, more so everyday with what we are witnessing.

This two car TX Eagle train needs to be addressed in conjunction with the lack of food, lounge and astronomical fares, by RPA.

Heres a couple emails from NARP giving a taste of the past.

 

[PaTrainFan]

I have written RPA a number of times and never received even an ackowledgement. And (in my opinion) it was not bombastic, pie in the sky dreaming stuff. However, I get plenty of appeals for money from them. That never ends.

 

[joelkfla]

This two car TX Eagle train

three-car

 

[daybeers]

I have written RPA a number of times and never received even an ackowledgement. And (in my opinion) it was not bombastic, pie in the sky dreaming stuff. However, I get plenty of appeals for money from them. That never ends.

Yup, this is what gets me. @Amtrakfflyer is correct, it has been time for them to call out the board.

 

[Amtrak25]

At this point in time enough people consider Amtrak's future grim under this management, enough people that it’s time for RPA to broach the subject. Soon enough a Congress won’t be as sympathetic to the nationwide network. I could see a scenario where Gardner calls RPA out in front of Congress saying the network trains are bleeding him dry. Who’s going to call out who first? It’s plausible, more so everyday with what we are witnessing.

That scenario has long since happened. When visiting Rep. Gottheimer (D-NJ) 4 years ago, he told me what Amtrak staff said to him: "the LD trains are bleeding us dry" when on the subject of their bogus allocated cost accounting’s Volpe model abused as an efficiency document. Gardner was COO at the time, and prior to that, a Democratic Hill Staffer. They do listen to him.

As for "RPA", a lot attitude and incompetence has crept in since their public name change from NARP (still their legal name), and they seemed to have morphed from customer advocate to Amtrak’s PR department and management consultant, in financial trouble with several staff layoffs, living off bequests, and fund raisers. Joined at the hip as they have become with Amtrak, dependent on their member’s 10% travel discount and AGR points at stake, I have come to regard them as part of them problem, not the solution. I was a member from 1980 to 2019, and now done with “RPA”. No longer shackled and constrained by their “asks”, obsessing with the Gulf Coast week after week, I work through my state ARP and make my agenda, with all its inconvenient truths about Amtrak.

RPA has become insular and unresponsive from their membership, as evidenced by other posters, silent on Amtrak management’s incompetence, service meltdowns, suspended "temporarily" Amtrak Express since 9/15/2020, delays in postings and hirings one year after being gifted $4.4 Billion in COVID relief, thumbing their nose at Congress on daily service, station agents, and about the Biden Administration’s refusal to replace the term-expired, unqualified, NEC-centric Amtrak Board as prescribed by Congress. With Amtrak, I call it not letting the COVID crisis go to waste. They are waiting for a more hostile Congress to get elected next January to carry out their agenda. Amtrak's problems are no longer money; they are managerial. RPA whining for more money for Amtrak is not going to fix anything.

I was doing a slow burn since 2010 for NARP’s completely ignoring the Performance Improvement Plans (PRIIA 210), particularly the one that IMHO made the most sense financial sense with a neutral operating budget and better ridership - the Capitol Ltd one with Pennsylvanian thru cars. Since Amtrak was not serious about them, NARP wasn’t going to pursue them. Instead, they carried on year after year about a daily Cardinal, albeit one of the PIPs that did not make much financial sense and needing 2 more sets of equipment to run. Naturally, it got nowhere. Then they handed Rick Harnish $25K to come up with what later morphed in the Lakeshore Rail Alliance of adding 3 or 4 NY - Chicago trains, but all via Buffalo, adamantly refusing to consider anything via Pittsburgh to replace trains 40/41. Middle of the night transfers at Pittsburgh are just fine. I regard this all as a distraction from the PIPs since Amtrak wished to forget about them. Anderson then removed them from the Amtrak website. Crickets again.

RPA claimed to have distributed their Cost Accounting "White Paper" (written by 3 older NARP Directors) to key members of Congress. No, they did not. Not a single aide from New Jersey nor Senator Schumer's aide ever saw or heard of it I when I presented it when I showed it to them 1, 3, and 4 years ago.

I can’s say I am the least bit surprised - Mama Amtrak would not be pleased.

 

[acelafan]

Wow, a lot of RPA bashing. For the record, it takes a lot of money to run an advocacy organization with a local office in DC. I do read the RPA Hotline every week and there is only a handful of staff trying to turn the massive ship of Amtrak (and Congress) incompetence.

If RPA did not exist do we think Amtrak would have as many trains, routes, frequencies that it does now? Of course I'm not saying I'm satisfied with the current state of affairs. But if not RPA in DC, then who? DC lobbying runs on money, like it or not.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

RPA has done an amazing job in front of this Congress but to be blunt they are being made out to the clowns by Amtraks management and Board. Gardner does not share the view of RPA but he’s playing along.

I have no issues with paying dues but the job has been left half done and all the hard work of RPA will be for not. They’ve basically enabled a con man (Gardner) to waste a bundle of our tax money on his personal, narrow minded view of rail. Con man may be a harsh word but he’s on record with lying about the SWC and who knows what else.

If I had one request it would be RPA immediately start advocating for new board nominees so they are confirmed before Biden is out of office.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If I wanted more impact over what the RPA says and does I would volunteer for active participation rather than emailing instructions from the sidelines or ranting about them from my armchair.

 

[toddinde]

RPA has done an amazing job in front of this Congress but to be blunt they are being made out to the clowns by Amtraks management and Board. Gardner does not share the view of RPA but he’s playing along.

I have no issues with paying dues but the job has been left half done and all the hard work of RPA will be for not. They’ve basically enabled a con man (Gardner) to waste a bundle of our tax money on his personal, narrow minded view of rail. Con man may be a harsh word but he’s on record with lying about the SWC and who knows what else.

If I had one request it would be RPA immediately start advocating for new board nominees so they are confirmed before Biden is out of office.

RPA is really working on that.

 

[toddinde]

Wow, a lot of RPA bashing. For the record, it takes a lot of money to run an advocacy organization with a local office in DC. I do read the RPA Hotline every week and there is only a handful of staff trying to turn the massive ship of Amtrak (and Congress) incompetence.

If RPA did not exist do we think Amtrak would have as many trains, routes, frequencies that it does now? Of course I'm not saying I'm satisfied with the current state of affairs. But if not RPA in DC, then who? DC lobbying runs on money, like it or not.

You’re absolutely right. RPA has done great things.

 

[jis]

RPA must maintain its national focus, and the council needs to stay strong. RPA cannot be allowed to be dominated by the east coast.

I would more specifically use the phrase North East. We in the South including the Southeast and in the hinterland away from the North East are actually suffering more in some ways than folks west of Chicago, specially when considering the food service situation.

But fortunately we have had a few good engagements with RPA on some of the Infrastructure Bill driven new interest in the Southeast in general and Florida in particular, which we are trying to get a bit of momentum on.

Other than that I pretty much agree with your position.

 

[toddinde]

I would more specifically use the phrase North East. We in the South including the Southeast and in the hinterland away from the North East are actually suffering more in some ways than folks west of Chicago, specially when considering the food service situation.

But fortunately we have had a few good engagements with RPA on some of the Infrastructure Bill driven new interest in the Southeast in general and Florida in particular, which we are trying to get a bit of momentum on.

Other than that I pretty much agree with your position.

You’re right; northeast. You guys in the southeast are sucking wind too.

 

[PaTrainFan]

I may have a couple of petty complaints, but I applaud RPA's focus on the Gulf Coast situation as that is a seminal moment for any meaningful expansion of passenger rail in the U.S. Given what CSX and NS are committing to that fight, there needs to be a strong counter punch because if this effort fails we can forget most other new rail service in this country for the foreseeable future.

 

[MARC Rider]

But fortunately we have had a few good engagements with RPA on some of the Infrastructure Bill driven new interest in the Southeast in general and Florida in particular, which we are trying to get a bit of momentum on.

The southeast should definitely be a top priority, as there are already a lot of heavily used services there and it connects to the northeast, another region with even heavier passenger rail ridership. The NEC has already been expanded into Virginia, and North Carolina has also made a big commitment to passenger rail. The trick is getting Georgia and South Carolina on board to support at least some service. That's going to be some pretty heavy political lifting, maybe RPA needs to find a way to lobby state governments, too, not to mention getting some pro-rail propaganda into those states. I guess Florida is pretty similar in that regard, although they have a private operator, Brightline, which might get some state backing. Maybe RPA could work on Brightline to get them to at least interface a little better with the Amtrak long-distance service than they're now doing. Of course, all of this requires resources, and I guess RPA is a little stretched thin with staff, so their focus on working with Congress for Federal support makes sense.

Get a bunch of interconnected corridors running in the southeast, though, and additional long-distance service can be added at much less cost. This is in addition to the benefits that the corridor service will give the localities.

 

[neroden]

RPA has done an amazing job in front of this Congress but to be blunt they are being made out to the clowns by Amtraks management and Board. Gardner does not share the view of RPA but he’s playing along.

I have no issues with paying dues but the job has been left half done and all the hard work of RPA will be for not. They’ve basically enabled a con man (Gardner) to waste a bundle of our tax money on his personal, narrow minded view of rail. Con man may be a harsh word but he’s on record with lying about the SWC and who knows what else.

My assessment of Gardner is that he is a total incompetent. He actually loves trains (no, really, it's clear from his history) but he doesn't know a damn thing about how to run a railroad. He needs to be fired for cause.

Edit: to be clear, I do also think Gardner is dishonest. He's repeatedly claimed that he can't do something because of a "legal requirement" which doesn't exist, while simultaneously completely ignoring black-letter legal requirements which do exist. I find that behavior disgusting. It's one thing to be a stickler for legal requirements, it's another to play fast and loose and go by the "spirit of the law", but it's dishonest to be a stickler for overly-rigid legal interpretations when it suits you and play fast and loose when it suits you.

If I had one request it would be RPA immediately start advocating for new board nominees so they are confirmed before Biden is out of office.

RPA already is doing that. We don't seem to have an angle of attack to get Biden to see the urgency (understable given the pandemic and war, but still)

 

[neroden]

I will say that when I contacted RPA about the missing timetables, first the staff couldn't believe that the timetables were actually missing (like so many of us!) or that it was intentional and not an accident (like so many of us!) but Jim Mathews actually did get to the bottom of it and found out what had happened.

(Namely: the person responsible retired. Amtrak's top management didn't replace her because they believed they would have a magic automated timetable system. Which they do not have. Competent management never removes the manual system until after the automated system is working, that's just basic business practice.)

Armed with this information, I was able to take another approach. My time mercilessly insulting Amtrak management online actually got me an internal Amtrak contact (he got permission from his management to interact on social media after seeing how angry everyone was). He was sympathetic. Some unknown combination of that contact and pressure from RPA staff and from who-knows-who-else got the GTFS data released, which is something other people have been trying to do for literally decades.

So everything I've ever done in rail advocacy has been as slow as carving stone with a knife, but I have found RPA to be useful and productive in breaking through some of the barriers.

And I don't know who read the RPA White Paper about the costs, but as Jis noted a few weeks ago, Amtrak FINALLY started publishing the avoidable-cost numbers they've been required to publish since 2008, so some of the pressure hit the right point.

 

[jpakala]

RPA has only Jim Mathews and 4 other people. That's it. How they ever do all they do is hard to believe, from secretarial tasks to testifying before Congressional commitees to travel to meetings to news dissemination and on and on.

 

[John Bredin]

RPA already is doing that. We don't seem to have an angle of attack to get Biden to see the urgency (understable given the pandemic and war, but still)

It seems to me the solution is to vet and shadow-pick a board, by either RPA itself or lobbying the Transportation Secretary to do it, in a transparent process with advice from various stakeholders across the nation, and then hand the resulting list to Biden.

Biden wouldn't be bound by it, of course, but why reinvent the wheel if you trust who prepared the list and how it was prepared?

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

To take it a step farther I think there’s truly a place in-house for RPA at Amtrak in a perfect world. Call it “government relations”, send Matthews to Congress to testify for funding requests as an employee of Amtrak. Bring him in house just like Tempo used to do for the Eagle. Let the new CEO run the day to day operations with a handful of good department heads.

People have talked about how all CEOs want to do is cut, cut, cut and there’s no one out there left to run Amtrak. That may be true in the private sector. I think there’s someone out there from a big city transit system that would “get it”. City buses, trolleys, etc in a way are just mini Amtrak systems. A city transit system downtown at rush hour commute may come close to break even (think NEC) but at the same time they are required to operate buses to the suburbs, and outlaying communities that may only have 5 people at peak hours and less at other times. It’s done for the good of the community. I haven’t looked at average fare box recovery for a transit system in ages but it’s usually 40-60 percent. Way less than Amtrak yet their CEOs are ok with it. They have maintaince shops to manage and equipment to procure and so on. These transit systems also have their own police forces. The systems have way more in common with Amtrak then any airline. The new Board would have some good candidates if it looked in this direction.

I know nothing about this lady at all. I was born and raised in San Diego so I googled San Diego Transit CEO. On the front page of the website she has a letter and I think it sums up my point.

https://sdmts.com/about-mts-organization-charts/ceo-message

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Let’s help RPA get the new Board seated. Here in Iowa all my elected officials are not real fans of Amtrak. I’ve written them all today (again) asking that Amtraks CEO and Board be replaced ASAP. Unfortunately I don’t expect much, maybe if they find out Amtrak is being run by a former staffer of Chuck Schumer that will provide some red meat for them to act (sad but true). That would require research on their part though.

I wanted to post this contact email for the DOT constituent services. Buttigieg doesn’t seem to have an email listed but you can message him through the DOT Facebook page just Google Pete Buttigieg DOT Facebook. Let’s get some emails out asking for the new Board to be seated.

https://railroads.dot.gov/about-fra/contact-us

 

[Amtrak25]

Board replacement should preceed management changes.

These addresses might also be useful as a department within the FRA:

Office of Railroad Policy & Development
United States Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Their e-mail address is: [email protected]

Their purpose is:
"FRA’s Office of Railroad Policy and Development (RPD) is responsible for project development and investment in passenger and freight rail infrastructure as well as the implementation of statutory policy concerning intercity passenger rail service and high-speed rail. RPD also oversees grant agreements with Amtrak to administer federal funds appropriated by Congress to support Amtrak’s operations, infrastructure, and equipment."

The last sentence is where Amtrak fails given management's poor decisions, which the Anthony Coscia-lead Amtrak Board seems comfortable with.