Used with the permission of the author.
A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts fromUnited Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203
Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA
Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]
http://www.unitedrail.org
Volume 3, Number 34
Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America.
Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.
URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.
1) Whither the Sunset Limited, still? As noted last week, the Sunset Limited is still not operating east of New Orleans, with no announcement in sight as to when it will resume operation. The only solid information available is through a letter sent to an Amtrak union official which said the Sunset is not slated for discontinuance. That's tough to imagine, especially since it has been a full year now since the train operated east of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.
A lot of city, town, and state money went into extending the Sunset from New Orleans to Florida in 1993, including $7.5 million from the State of Florida for track upgrades, the addition of track sidings, and 80% assistance to local governments for station rehabilitations or new stations constructed.
Public money in Mississippi and Alabama also went to similar purposes. No public money has ever been used for operating subsidies.
Amtrak, as witnessed by Tempe, Arizona; Ocala, Florida; and Tampa, Florida has a bad habit of gratefully receiving new or renovated station and infrastructure facilities from local governments and then either discontinuing, rerouting, or drastically reducing train service. It must be tough to look local officials in the face and say, "if you build it, we will come" when Amtrak has such an abysmal record to cutting and running.
2) A rumor was floating around this week that Amtrak had abolished the Lead Service Attendant job in the Pacific Parlour first class lounge car on the Coast Starlight, which has been the subject of so much contention over horribly late trains. The rumor also said that the equipment would be taken
off the train and sold.
Turns out part of the rumor was true, but this time, Amtrak did the right thing. The Los Angeles Crew Base is having difficulty finding enough LSAs to staff the car, so the LSA job was abolished, but replaced by a Service Attendant job. The only change passengers will see is that an SA cannot make
a sale of an alcoholic drink or other item (only LSAs can handle money). But, the Pacific Parlous car will still run, and still be staffed. It's better to keep such an icon and good passenger service car running, even without the revenue from the alcohol sales, than not running at all.
3) The Amtrak on-time performance problems with Union Pacific Railroad have become almost legendary. Many reasonable people have wondered why Amtrak has not taken some action to force UP to live up to its contractual commitments. Amtrak has finally done that. Here is a letter that has been released from Amtrak to Union Pacific.
August 4, 2006
Mr. Dennis Duffy
Executive Vice President, Operations
Union Pacific Railroad Company
Dear Mr. Duffy:
I am writing to seek your immediate assistance in correcting the chronic unacceptable performance of Amtrak trains operating on the Union Pacific Railroad, particularly Amtrak's long-distance trains.
It's sobering to look at how bad long-distance Amtrak train performance on UP has become. In July, 97% of the 211 long-distance trains operated primarily on UP arrived late (see Attachment 1). Even more amazing is the degree of lateness: 84% of long-distance trains arrived more than 2 hours late, 74% more than 3 hours late, and 66% more than 4 hours late.
To further put this into perspective, over 67,000 Amtrak passengers traveled on UP long-distance trains that were over 4 hours late ... in the month of July alone! The resulting damage to Amtrak's brand, reputation, and repeat business is immense.
The vast majority of delays are from causes attributable to UP - nearly 90% of all delays incurred by Amtrak trains operating on UP in July. As high as these UP-responsible delays are, they continue to increase (see Attachment
Amtrak has tried to work with UP to improve this situation. Our cooperation has ranged from adding over three hours of scheduled recovery time and changing the scheduled slot of the Sunset Limited, to repeatedly rerouting the California Zephyr away from the ridership-producing Rocky Mountain scenery for weeks at a time each summer to assist with UP trackwork, to modifying the schedule of the Coast Starlight last month on extremely short notice to support UP trackwork in Oregon.
In return, overall long distance train performance has continued to worsen. UP's encroachment on Amtrak's contractual and statutory rights reached a point this Spring where Amtrak had to initiate a contract arbitration over our right to operate, in which Amtrak prevailed by a unanimous 3-0 vote of
the arbitrators.
A primary root cause of this unacceptable performance is UP's chronic violation of the slow order limits in our UP-Amtrak operating agreement. Each of the four Amtrak long distance routes operating on UP is in violation of these clear contractual obligations.
UP is making investments in some of these slow order areas, and Amtrak appreciates that step in the right direction. However, these investments cover only a portion of the route-miles where slow orders exceed contractual limits, and have not been enough to bring slow orders into compliance with the operating agreement.
Clearly, we cannot continue like this. Tom Schmidt has requested a meeting with Joe Santamaria. I trust that Mr. Santamaria will be prepared to discuss with Tom a program for immediate corrective action, to be taken while simultaneously working to correct the chronic slow order contractual
violations on all Amtrak routes where they exist.
The responsibility for operating Amtrak trains with minimal delay over UP rail lines is clear in both federal law and in UP's operating agreement with Amtrak. The magnitude of Amtrak's performance problems on UP has begun to attract significant public attention. If our two companies cannot improve
Amtrak performance on UP, it is an invitation for government to solve our performance problems for us, an outcome neither of us wants to see happen.
Sincerely,
William L. Crosbie
Sr. Vice President, Operations/Amtrak
4) Also noted last week, Amtrak has renamed its weekly employee advisory publication to the clever name "Amtrak This Week." For those of us who write for a living, the improvement in quality to the "other, new kid on the block" This Week is both noticeable and appreciated. The tone has changed for the better, from one of "let me convince you what's right for you" to one of straight news reporting, where readers can decide for themselves what is right and wrong.
Here is a timely Amtrak This Week report on Amtrak host railroad on-time
performance.
August 14, 2006
Top Story: Update on Host Railroad OTP Discussions
Two weeks ago, Amtrak reported on its efforts to improve the on-time performance of its trains over CSXT territory between Florida and Washington D.C., just one component of its approach to improving unacceptable OTP over many freight routes.
Since acting President and CEO David Hughes met with CSXT Chief Operating Officer Tony Ingram in July, preliminary numbers point to small, but potentially encouraging OTP improvements. During the 30-day period before the meeting, none of the trains operated on time; for the period following the
meeting through yesterday, OTP for the Auto Train was 20%, Silver Meteor 9% and Silver Star 2%. While far from acceptable, the progress is viewed by Amtrak as a step in the right direction.
The executive-level dialogue with CSXT continued last week, when Hughes advised Ingram that Amtrak would commit resources to do its part to improve the performance of the Florida services. Amtrak is responsible for about 15% of the delays. Amtrak has added a second locomotive to Silver Service trains and is conducting an analysis of how to turn trains faster at the Lorton and Sanford Auto Train facilities, among other short-term considerations.
In a recent letter to the Union Pacific Railroad [see above], Senior Vice President of Operations William Crosbie sought UP's immediate assistance in improving the California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle on-time performance. In July, 97% of these trains were late, 66% of which were more than four hours late. Ninety percent of the delays Amtrak
encountered over the UP were caused by the UP. Amtrak has called for immediate corrective action, including reducing sloworder delays to within the contractual limit.
In the spring, Amtrak prevailed after it took UP to arbitration to enforce Amtrak's right to operate over UP during a period of track work in Missouri.
The effect poor on-time performance has on repeat business, brand and reputation - not to mention the toll it takes on its employees - is garnering public, congressional and federal attention.
5) The Amtrak This Week employee publication for August 21, 2006, has a fascinating discussion about passenger satisfaction.
August 21, 2006
Top Story: Customer Satisfaction Driven by OTP, Personal Experience
Train on-time performance and personal service are the two biggest factors affecting customer satisfaction, according to Amtrak research.
Earlier this year, Amtrak set six specific and measurable customer satisfaction goals. The first and most comprehensive goal is that 90% of passengers rate the service as "good" and would recommend it to others.
To measure how we're standing up to this goal, passengers are regularly surveyed using the Customer Service Index (CSI). For the most recent month on record - June - 76 percent of passengers rated Amtrak service as "good" (8-10 on a scale of 10).
In June, the most satisfied passengers and the percentage ranking their experience as "good" were on the following services: Downeaster (92), Illinois Zephyr (92), Piedmont (88), Empire (87), Hiawatha (86), Pere Marquette (86), Pacific Surfliner (85).
The common thread through the lowest ranking services was OTP, the subject of last week's Amtrak This Week "Top Story." These services and their "good" experience rankings were: Adirondack (48), Silver Meteor (51), Carolinian (51), Auto Train (55), Coast Starlight (51).
On-time performance isn't the only factor that leads to a negative experience. Passengers also tell Amtrak time and again that friendly and courteous crews make the difference when delays are encountered. For example, Auto Train lounge and dining car crew service in June was rated "good" by 81% of passengers.
Among the initiatives underway to improve passenger service is the deployment of customer service managers charged with improving service delivery.
On-time performance over host railroads continues to be a top issue for acting President and CEO David Hughes and members of senior management. In addition to the pressure being applied by Amtrak, recent federal and media attention has put new light on this problem. Look for more news in the coming weeks on this matter.
6) There are times when host railroads and Amtrak work together to achieve better scheduling during maintenance of way periods when track is being upgraded or maintained. Such an example is the route of the Pere Marquette, where an adjusted schedule for the train started in the middle of August and will continue until September 7th.
It is not uncommon for host railroads to wonder why Amtrak can't - or won't - adjust passenger train schedules to fit the needs of the host railroads. Overall, this is not an unreasonable question when both parties realize the big picture needs of the each other, and work to find some common ground that meets the needs of the host railroad shareholders and Amtrak passengers, too.
For too many years, Amtrak and its host railroads have been in adversarial positions. Amtrak today, and the lack of private passenger trains run by the host railroads, is the result of the railroads making a deal on their own volition at the end of the 1960s, knowing full well what Amtrak would be. On
the other hand, Amtrak, for all of its corporate life, has known that even though its existence and right to operate over all railroad tracks in this country has been granted by Congress, it still has much more than an ethical obligation to treat its host railroads with the same respect it hopes to be treated by those same railroads.
Somebody, somewhere, has to bring both sides to a bargaining table that updates and improves Amtrak's operating contracts with its host railroads where everyone feels they have made similar sacrifices instead of one party beating the other party. A healthy Amtrak paying a fair price under fair
conditions for use of host railroad tracks, and a healthy Amtrak being part of our domestic transportation network and serving a growing base of willing passengers is a good concept that needs to be implemented immediately.
7) The Federal Railroad Administration, State of Florida and the City of Boca Raton have imposed restrictions on Amtrak, CSX, and Tri-Rail commuter trains that run through the city. As of September 20th, no train running on the former Seaboard Air Line/CSX main line (not the nearby Florida East Coast Railway line) will be able to sound its locomotive horn at any time of the night or day. Instead, grade crossings have been improved to prevent any type of vehicles from crossing tracks when an on-coming train approaches.
Of course, the denizens of Boca Raton, a wealthy South Florida city (which, by the way, Boca Raton translates to House of the Rat), think noisy and unwelcome trains detract from their quality of life.
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad built those tracks during the Florida land boom in the mid-1920s, and they have seen heavy, continual use since then. Boca Raton is a town which grew up around the nearby FEC Railway, after it was developed by Henry Flagler and the FEC just before the Florida land boom. Folks, the railroad, which made Boca Raton possible and desirable in the first place, was there over eight decades ago, long before any current resident thought about moving to South Florida. If you don't like trains, don't move to a neighborhood around trains.
The horn restrictions, no matter how carefully a grade crossing is guarded, are just an invitation to accidents between trains and cars and pedestrians. The railroads live by the slogan "safety first." When did that become unimportant?
8) Last week was the first week TWA was distributed by a new e-mail server. Overall, things went well. However, there were two kick-backs from recipient e-mail systems that would have happened no matter what e-mail server was being used. Last week, the acronym for the old St. Louis Union Terminal (or, the newer St. Louis Union Trailers in mock celebration of the years-old "temporary" buildings used there by Amtrak) was used (we won't repeat that mistake). Two kick-backs said "message rejected for explicit sexual content." After a brief, baffling moment of scanning the content of TWA for such a problem, the culprit was discovered. From now on, it's just the St. Louis
Amtrak station.
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J. Bruce Richardson
President
United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203
Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA
Telephone 904-636-6760
[email protected]
http://www.unitedrail.org