9 hours ago, KJP said:

 

Now if only we could get a non 1am or 3am departure/arrival time. I may finally be able to convince my wife we should do some vacation travel via Amtrak.

 

new infrastructure bill:

 

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/federal_legislation_regulation/news/House-Transportation-Chair-DeFazio-unveils-infrastructure-bill-details--60604

Amtrak plans to cut long-distance trains, including Toledo's, to 3 days per week

https://www.toledoblade.com/local/2020/06/17/amtrak-plans-to-cut-toledo-trains-3-days-per-week/stories/20200617104

 

Edited June 18, 20204 yr by KJP

 

Susan Glaser at cleveland.com as well as other newspapers, as well are reporting the 3-a-week threat as a done deal.  I thought it was a negotiating tactic with Congress over another $1.5 billion  Amtrak aid bill.  Which is right?

 

https://www.cleveland.com/business/2020/06/amtrak-will-reduce-long-distance-service-to-three-times-weekly-including-trains-through-cleveland.html

According to friends in Amtrak management, the company's new leadership is absolutely serious about these cuts.

Edited June 19, 20204 yr by KJP

1 hour ago, KJP said:

According to friends in Amtrak management, the company's new leadership is absolutely serious about these cuts.

 

What a bunch of idiots.  And here I thought it couldn't get any worse than Anderson.

Edited June 19, 20204 yr by jam40jeff

We used to have to protect Amtrak from Congress. Now we need Congress to protect Amtrak from Amtrak.....

 

 

new tech & safety for amtrak:

 

 

Amtrak promotes new technology, contactless travel, other safety measures at New York Penn Station

 

Customers can receive boarding information push notifications directly from the Amtrak app.

Amtrak

Jul 22nd, 2020

 

 

Amtrak is implementing its New Standard of Travel at New York Penn Station (NYP), strengthening its commitment to safety by providing boarding information through push notifications via the Amtrak app, increasing the number of personnel at the station and adding cleanliness measures.

 

“As we continue to prioritize health and safety in traveling, it’s important we provide our customers with new, innovative measures that promote physical distancing and contactless travel,” said Amtrak President and CEO Bill Flynn. “We encourage all customers to download the app to receive our new app updates, which will prevent crowding inside the station waiting for the boarding information to post and provide an extra level of confidence to make travel safe and secure in addition to the many safety measures onboard our trains and at our stations.”

 

All customers who have downloaded the app and opted in for notifications can receive boarding information on their device. Additionally, customers who have opted in to Amtrak’s delay notifications will receive an email or text two hours before departure summarizing New York Penn Station’s cleaning procedures, restroom protocols, recommended arrival times and boarding and ticketing information. 

 

In addition, Amtrak has implemented new measures at New York Penn Station and other stations across the country...

 

 

more:

https://www.masstransitmag.com/technology/passenger-info/press-release/21147195/amtrak-amtrak-promotes-new-technology-contactless-travel-other-safety-measures-at-new-york-penn-station

On 7/22/2020 at 6:49 PM, mrnyc said:

new tech & safety for amtrak:

 

 

Amtrak promotes new technology, contactless travel, other safety measures at New York Penn Station

 

Encouraaging. I'm a frequent DC-NY Amtrak rider; but then I need to take the LIRR Port Washington line.  The Penn Station LIRR 'scrum' is probably harder to solve. Any news on that front?

39 minutes ago, Dougal said:

 

Encouraaging. I'm a frequent DC-NY Amtrak rider; but then I need to take the LIRR Port Washington line.  The Penn Station LIRR 'scrum' is probably harder to solve. Any news on that front?

 

 

only anecdotal from me.

 

it's still a construction zone down there re the new entrances work and so you will be surrounded by homeless harry and scruffy mary while you watch the board.

There will be no progress with Amtrak until they are forced to fix their deliberately misleading cost accounting system on which they base claims that the Northeast Corridor is profitable (it's not) and the long distance trains are the financial drain on the system (they aren't).  Below is a fact sheet that several volunteers with the Rail Passengers Association distributed to 95 members of Congress (all members of the various committees that are involved with Amtrak) back in February of this year.  If I were a state, I would be trying to do what the late and former ORDC commissioner Jim Seney was considering when he designed the Ohio Hub plan:  not doing business with Amtrak if possible:

 

Amtrak’s Route Accounting System:

Fatally Flawed, Deceptive, Misleading

 

Executive Summary

 

Amtrak is deceiving Congress – deliberately and unlawfully.

 

Other victims of its deceit are the Secretary of Transportation, its own Board of Directors, its management team and – most importantly – the American people. Amtrak’s route accounting system (APT) produces false information that misrepresents the real costs of Amtrak’s operations. Worse, it grossly exaggerates the actual taxpayer cost of individual routes and the savings that would result from their elimination.

 

The upcoming reauthorization of the FAST Act makes the need for accurate and relevant information especially urgent because Amtrak is proposing a radical restructuring of the national passenger rail system based entirely on false and misleading data.

 

Since Amtrak began operations, it has added, combined and eliminated routes; increased and reduced frequencies; expanded and contracted train capacity; upgraded and downgraded on-board service. It has made these changes based on faulty information derived from APT and its predecessor system RPS. As a result, the changes did not produce the outcomes desired.

 

Congress established Amtrak as a publicly funded instrumentality of the Federal Government to provide the nation with a useful and beneficial transportation service that the private sector was no longer able or willing to provide. When Secretary of Transportation John Volpe designated the basic passenger rail network, his goal was to concentrate limited resources to ensure that the national passenger rail network made an optimum contribution to the Nation’s total transportation system.

 

Today, we confront important issues and must make critical decisions. How should Amtrak meet the mobility needs of the traveling public? What parts of the nation should it serve? Should Amtrak add a route or eliminate one? Add or reduce capacity? Increase or reduce service frequency? How much should a State pay if it wants more service than Amtrak provides? These policy decisions have long term consequences.

 

These decisions should be made by the people’s elected representatives in Congress, not by its unelected and unaccountable Board of Directors or management cadre. Because Amtrak is a publicly funded organization, profit is neither the appropriate goal nor a useful metric in making these decisions. They require cost/benefit analyses, which depend on the accurate determination of actual costs. APT in its current form does not provide this information.

 

APT’s Fatal Flaws

 

Discussion

 

APT reports only Fully Allocated Costs that misrepresent the underlying economics and distort policy decisions.

The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe) explains that Fully Allocated Costs are not actual costs but accounting estimates of how much revenue each of Amtrak’s business lines, routes and trains would have to earn in order for Amtrak to cover all of its costs. Conceptually, Fully Allocated Costs are simply revenue targets established by accounting formulas. They do not indicate how much total revenues and costs would rise or fall with the addition or elimination of a route or a train because they include large allocations of costs for fixed overhead and shared facilities that would not vary with changes in service.

 

To make correct decisions about the value delivered by various levels of passenger train service, Congress and the public require information about Avoidable Costs – information that Amtrak’s Finance Department has long worked to suppress.

 

In the late 1990s, Amtrak’s Marketing Department developed the Market Based Network Analysis methodology (MBNA) that showed how changes in routes and frequencies would interact with each other to change the revenues and costs of the total system. Amtrak’s Finance Department gained control of the program and killed it.

Later, Volpe developed an Avoidable Cost methodology for APT but Amtrak’s Finance Department, disregarding Congressional mandates, refused to implement it and ultimately abandoned it entirely. Today, Amtrak refuses to provide FRA with the information on avoidable costs that FRA requires for its quarterly performance reports.

Both the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Amtrak have ignored the Congressional mandate to engage an independent entity to create a methodology for evaluating Amtrak’s various routes and services.

 

APT excludes significant operating costs in calculating route financial performance.

 

According to Volpe, Capital Consumption is an operating cost. APT, however, does not include this cost in its route financial performance reports – even though APT calculates it. By concealing this cost from Congress and the public, Amtrak is able to propagate its false narrative that its Northeast Corridor is “profitable.” Few see beyond this topline claim to notice the three-word qualifier that Amtrak executives typically add – usually with a wink and a nod – “above the rail.” This concept is nonsense and clearly deceptive. Without rails, trains do not move or perform a mobility function. Amtrak’s treatment of track access costs, however, exempts only its Northeast Corridor; Amtrak treats the track access payments for all other routes as an operating cost.

 

How much does this accounting alchemy understate the NEC’s operating costs? Amtrak won’t say. Its Fiscal Year 2020 Grant Request, however, provides a clue. In it, Amtrak stated that the National Network routes (Long Distance and State Supported) will impose $280 million in capital costs on the NEC in 2020. National Network trains account for 14% of either train- or ton-miles on the NEC. Mathematically it follows that the “capital consumption” of Amtrak’s NEC operations are be $1.72 billion. When this cost is charged against the $568.4 million in “adjusted operating earnings” that APT reported for the NEC in 2019, the true operating loss of the NEC could be in the vicinity of $1.1 to $1.2 billion a year. That’s billion with a B.

APT relies on inaccurate data.

 

Amtrak’s business practices do not allow collection of detailed data on its costs. For example, Amtrak is unaware of the actual cost of fuel and power used by each of its trains and routes. Moreover, errors in coding expenses in its general ledger system have been a problem that causes expenses to be misallocated. Other data inputs to APT also contains errors. For example, Amtrak treats the two sections of the Empire Builder (Chicago to Portland and Seattle) and the Lake Shore Limited (Chicago to New York and Boston) as two separate trains even though they run as a single train for more than 80% of their respective routes. The result is a significant overstatement of train miles, one of the statistics APT uses to allocate various costs.

Revenue inputs also include errors. For example, Amtrak credits all of the revenue generated by the portion of the train that operates on both the Sunset Limited and the Texas Eagle entirely to the Eagle even though the majority of miles is on the Sunset. As a consequence, APT incorrectly reports the financial performance of the Sunset as being the lowest in the system.

 

APT calculates costs in multiple phases, so small errors at the beginning compound to larger errors at the end. In technology parlance, APT’s problem is known as GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out.

 

APT does not have accurate cost data.

 

In 2013, Amtrak could only trace 20% of its costs to specific trains and routes; it had to “allocate” (guess) at the other 80%. By 2016, Amtrak had reduced this percentage to less than 50%, but only for each of its large business lines, not necessarily for each of its individual trains and routes. This improvement resulted primarily from better use of the cost data already available in its general ledger accounting system rather than from improvements in Amtrak’s business practices or cost data collection.

Because the percentage of its total costs that Amtrak must indirectly “allocate” is high, the probability that the costs for a particular activity are misstated is also high, making Amtrak’s calculation of route costs less credible and reliable. Because APT relies on some 50,000 to 60,000 manually developed rules to make those “allocations,” the costs it reports are subject not only to human error but also to outright manipulation designed to produce predetermined outcomes.

APT does not include revenue generated by passengers connecting with other routes.

 

The number of passengers that use more than one train to complete their journey typically exceeds two million a year with revenue that exceeds $200 million. Amtrak collects this data but does not include it in the route performance reports that APT produces. As a result, these reports understate the amount of revenue the system would lose or gain if a route or frequency were eliminated or added. Volpe marked this issue as a problem that needed further work. Since Amtrak discarded Volpe’s work, there has been no progress in resolving this outstanding issue.

 

APT lacks credibility and acceptance.

 

Amtrak cites Volpe’s involvement in APT’s development to enhance its credibility. The reports Volpe submitted to Congress, however, reveal that its involvement was ultimately quite limited.

 

Volpe joined the project after Amtrak had already begun work. Volpe concentrated on developing a methodology for Avoidable Costs while Amtrak continued work on its methodology for Fully Allocated Costs. Volpe’s work was constrained by the accounting structure that Amtrak Finance had already established that was more suitable to its Fully Allocated Costs. Volpe’s work was also compromised by Amtrak’s business practices, which limited its ability to obtain detailed information on costs. Ultimately, Amtrak discarded Volpe’s Avoidable Cost methodology. From the public record, a reasonable person could conclude that Amtrak’s Financial Department designed APT and that Volpe’s involvement was limited mainly to documenting Amtrak’s methodology.

 

Amtrak claims that APT’s accuracy is ensured because it, FRA, Volpe and State partners “devote significant resources to this objective.” In testimony to Congress on November 13, 2019, Stacey Mortensen, Executive Director of both the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority and San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission cited significant problems in dealing with Amtrak, its lack of data transparency; resistance to data sharing; inability to determine a fair cost sharing formula; inability to tie costs rationally to actual service, including its preposterous claim that a reduction in service would not necessarily produce a reduction in costs. Government reports show that other State “partners” have similar problems with Amtrak and its costing of services. Most interesting of all is that Amtrak’s own managers do not rely on APT to provide them with actionable information, preferring instead to obtain the data they need directly from Amtrak’s financial accounting system.

 

APT gives Amtrak unconstrained pricing power over the States.

 

PRIIA Section 209 required Amtrak to develop a pricing structure that would ensure that all States pay the same amount for the same service. This pricing scheme replaced the previous program that had allowed individual States to negotiate separate and different compensation agreements with Amtrak. The States and Amtrak settled on the APT. Since Amtrak has complete control over APT and its methodology, APT gives Amtrak the power to charge States for whatever costs Amtrak – at its sole discretion – claims them to be. Since it takes 50,000 – 60,000 allocation rules to determine those costs – each rule developed and overseen by Amtrak accountants – it is easy to understand why external oversight is virtually impossible, why Amtrak is so protective of its “proprietary” information and why Amtrak is so determined to prevent public disclosure of any information about its short- or long-term avoidable costs. APT’s Fully Allocated Costing allows Amtrak to conceal how much it marks up actual costs for overhead and joint facilities. If States knew the amount of the markup, it would alter the negotiating balance of power and make it more difficult for Amtrak to offload a large portion of its total costs onto the States.

 

Final Note

 

This paper supplements our previous critique of APT, Amtrak’s Route Accounting: Fatally Flawed, Misleading & Wrong, Rail Passengers Association, August 15, 2018, revised June 2, 2019 available on our website: https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/releases/amtraks-route-accounting-fatally-flawed-misleading-wrong/

 

 

Rev 1/31/20

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 20204 yr by gildone

Friends,

This is an urgent request from All Aboard Ohio to each of its members:
 
We have less than one week to get Congress to pass additional funding for Amtrak for FY 2021 before Amtrak’s planned Oct. 1st cut-back of long-distance service in our region to 3/x a week from daily (Amtrak trains 29/30--Capitol Limited and trains 48/49--Lake Shore Limited). Already, trains 50/51--The Cardinal operate 3x a week, as they have for almost 40 years. Let's not repeat this enduring mistake in the rest of Ohio and across the country.

The US House of Representatives passed a Continuing Resolution (HR 8337) which maintains funding for the FAST Act at Fiscal Year 2020 levels, but does not contain the necessary additional funding for Amtrak. HR 8337 is now before the US Senate.

Please call your US Senators {The Honorable Sherrod Brown (202) 224-2315 and the Honorable Rob Portman (202) 224-3353) this week. Leave the following brief message with your name and phone number: "please sponsor, co-sponsor or support an amendment to HR 8337 with enough funding that keeps our Amtrak trains running daily to serve Ohio and our communities with the economic benefits the trains provide. Tri-weekly service is not nearly enough!"

Also, the national Rail Passenger Association (RPA, formerly NARP) is putting together an excellent database of information on how such a cut-back to passenger rail service would affect various states. So far, they have that information for the following Midwest states: Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and North Dakota. The combined economic loss that would occur to just those five states is estimated to be more than $484 million.  RPA is working up estimates for other states.  (link to data here: https://allaboardohio.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f5c7a9ecc5455bcae3c5e842b&id=261de4e873&e=5d9348deac)  As you can see, cutting passenger rail impacts our states' economies far greater than the "savings" from the service cutbacks.

Contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions about this appeal.

Thank you for contacting your US Senators as soon as possible!

###

And

And

 

And

 

Edited November 8, 20204 yr by KJP

More on passenger rail's potential future under a Biden administration......

 

What will a Biden presidency mean for travel? Here's what changes to expect.  A Biden administration would likely invest heavily in passenger rail. Biden famously commuted from his home in Delaware to Capitol Hill by Amtrak, and the 50-year-old passenger railroad could get a boost from his administration. President Barack Obama's economic stimulus legislation supported passenger rail improvements nationwide, and a Biden administration promises to do the same. And it may not be just Amtrak getting the funds. Biden could accelerate high-speed rail projects in densely populated states such as Florida, Texas and California, as well as the traditional Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2020/11/09/joe-biden-travel-policies-heres-what-changes-expect/6224937002/

 

Former Amtrak president says Biden knows value of national network. But former Amtrak president Tom Downs, who met with Biden when he was a U.S. Senator for Delaware commuting between Washington and his home in Wilmington, Del., doubts that “Amtrak Joe” will endorse the current decision to reduce frequencies on long-distance routes to less than daily departures.     

“People assume that the only thing that Joe Biden cares about is the Northeast Corridor,” Downs, Amtrak's president from 1993 to 1997, tells Trains News Wire, recounting a 1994 Metroliner ride he shared with the then-junior Senator from Delaware. “‘Listen, Tommy. I can count!” Downs recalls, quoting Biden. “‘I need 51 Senators who support funding for Amtrak. And they come from around the rest of the country. If they don’t have a dog in the fight, Amtrak can’t survive,’ he told me.” They spent about an hour on the train that evening discussing Amtrak’s funding needs at a time when it was under intense budget pressure to cut costs. But the two also met when Biden visited the heavy maintenance facilities at Wilmington and Bear, Del. https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2020/11/09-former-amtrak-ceo-says-biden-knows-value-of-national-network 

 

 

What an ‘Amtrak Joe’ presidency means for transportation. This is one area where Amtrak Joe could make a dent, but again, his ambitions of a “second great rail revolution” might have to be tamped down a little. As Sam reports, rail advocates are excited for a Biden presidency, in which he could make subtle but meaningful progress on improving passenger rail, likely centered around Amtrak (which itself is already pushing Biden for pandemic rescue money and long-term expansion). The most likely scenario is a “ steady, incremental, supportive type of atmosphere for Amtrak specifically and for passenger rail generally,” said Jim Mathews, head of the Rail Passengers Association. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-transportation/2020/11/09/what-an-amtrak-joe-presidency-means-for-transportation-791465 

 

Joe Biden supports high-speed rail. What does this mean for Texas?  Carlos Aguilar, CEO of Dallas-based Texas Central developing the project, said the company has the support of possibly one of the highest backers — President-Elect Joe Biden. "He is a fanatic of trains," Aguilar said, noting Biden's decades-long practice of riding an Amtrak train between his home in Delaware and Washington, D.C. "He understands what this is about. He is supportive of high-speed rail and he actually has shown support for our project, as well. I think all those aspects are important and coming together for that dialogue that we have to have with this administration and the next." https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2020/11/12/joe-biden-texas-central-high-speed-rail.html 

What a well-funded passenger rail system could look like in the Midwest under ‘Amtrak Joe’. Even with the pandemic, there’s some reason to hope for Minnesota’s first passenger rail improvements in generations. Under a Biden administration, a federal fiscal stimulus package could make a huge difference. In June, the U.S. House passed the TRAIN ACT, the largest  investment in years into federal passenger rail. It died in the Senate this summer…. If the feds were to expand support for intercity rail to anything like their funding for highways or airports, the Amtrak system could see widespread expansion. Particularly given the high CO2 emissions caused by short-haul flights, an expanded passenger rail network could dramatically reduce carbon emissions.  https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2020/11/what-a-well-funded-passenger-rail-system-could-look-like-in-the-midwest-under-amtrak-joe/

 

Passenger rail investment offers non-stop service to a prosperous economy. While gaining control of the pandemic must be the priority for us all, advancing infrastructure investment is a great place to start a path to the future. Boosting funding for America's passenger railways, in particular, would juice the economy, protect the environment, and empower workers…. Few will question that we need a transportation system that is more resilient, less carbon-intensive, and capable of accommodating shifting travel demands and populations. That system must avoid negative impacts on communities and the environment and provide good jobs and opportunity for all. Only passenger rail can check all of those boxes. So while Americans may have divergent views on many issues, we should all be able to agree that it's time to invest in passenger rail.  Bill Flynn is Amtrak’s President & CEO and Tony Coscia is Chair of the Amtrak Board. https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/525884-passenger-rail-investment-offers-non-stop-service-to-a

This seems like good news for Amtrak: FRA publishes rule establishing minimum on-time standards between Amtrak and host railroads

 

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/article/21162909/fra-publishes-rule-establishing-minimum-ontime-standards-between-amtrak-and-host-railroads

 

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published a final rule Nov. 16 that sets up metrics and a minimum standard to measure the performance and quality of service of Amtrak intercity operations.  

...

The final rule requires Amtrak and its host railroads to certify Amtrak schedules and sets an on-time performance minimum standard of 80 percent for any two consecutive calendar quarters. A train arriving within 15 minutes of its published arrival time is considered on time. Other metrics that FRA defines in the final rule include ridership, train delays, station performance and host running time.

...

Amtrak compiles an annual report card for the six Class 1 freight railroads and assigns a letter grade based on the number of delays caused to Amtrak trains. In 2019, the average grade for all host railroads was a “C” with Canadian Pacific receiving an “A,” CSX, BNSF and Union Pacific receiving sliding “B” scale grades, Canadian National receiving a “D” and Norfolk Southern receiving an “F.”

 

On 11/16/2020 at 1:17 PM, KJP said:

More on passenger rail's potential future under a Biden administration......

 

How much idle passenger equipment is sitting around to enable a speedy surge in service?  If Biden magically signs a dramatic Amtrak expansion bill into law on Feb 1, 2021, it'll take 2+ years for manufacturers to deliver new trains, meaning it'll be the end of his term before service improvements are realized on some routes.

 

I recall that back in 2009~ the national stimulus meant other projects claimed the old equipment that the Ohio Hub had planned to use.  The unexpected need to spend $200+ million on brand-new trains ate into the construction budget meaning they had insufficient funds to bring the trains into Cincinnati.  

 

 

How much idle passenger equipment is sitting around to enable a speedy surge in service?  If Biden magically signs a dramatic Amtrak expansion bill into law on Feb 1, 2021, it'll take 2+ years for manufacturers to deliver new trains, meaning it'll be the end of his term before service improvements are realized on some routes.

 

There is no possibility of a speedy surge in service. Yes, there will be some spare Amfleet I and Horizon cars as a result of Amtrak Midwest and Amtrak California receiving a total of 146 new Siemens Venture railcars (almost identical to Brightline's cars). But the Amfleet I (mid-1970s) and Horizon cars (late-1980s) they're replacing are in need of overhaul to remain in daily service. That will take a couple of years for any overhaul to happen. But that's sooner than ordering new cars (even the off-the-shelf Venture railcars) which take 3-6 years from order to delivery. Siemens has an order backlog for the USA and Canada at its Sacramento plant -- the only place in the world that's making them to North American standards.

 

 I recall that back in 2009~ the national stimulus meant other projects claimed the old equipment that the Ohio Hub had planned to use.  The unexpected need to spend $200+ million on brand-new trains ate into the construction budget meaning they had insufficient funds to bring the trains into Cincinnati.

 

It wasn't unexpected. Ohio planned to use newly built, double-decker trains by US Railcar, based on the Colorado Railcar design whose biggest customer was the WES commuter rail service between Portland-Beaverton. It was in Ohio's 3C budget although most of the federal funds Ohio procured was for infrastructure improvements to provide enough track capacity so that the 3C trains could be interoperable with the existing freight traffic and operate at higher average speeds over the 3C route. 

 

Any service that will start anywhere in the USA -- and especially in Ohio -- as a result of a Biden initiative will likely require infrastructure enhancements to accommodate the additional passenger trains. So it will take years before any new trains can start anywhere, even in the Northeast Corridor as the Hudson Tunnels and NYC's Penn Station are so constrained for most of the day. Even if Biden can get his initiative approved by both houses of Congress in his first year, I wonder if he will live long enough to see much more than the plans let alone the start of construction of his desired Second Great Railroad Revolution in the USA. It takes an average of 10 years for a major, federally funded transportation project to go from idea to funding procurement, to multiple stages of planning to more funding procurement to construction to ribbon cutting. And that's just the average. For bigger, more complicated projects, it takes longer.

Speaking of Amtrak's new railcars. Amtrak may scrap many of the older cars that these will replace....

 

On 11/18/2020 at 12:18 AM, KJP said:

Any service that will start anywhere in the USA -- and especially in Ohio -- as a result of a Biden initiative will likely require infrastructure enhancements to accommodate the additional passenger trains.

 

Thanks for your response.  What was the timetable for the 3C's?  Kasich won the Nov 2010 election but I can't remember how far along things were in engineering and procurement.  

 

The new Siemens rail cars look nice - a lot better than the Talgo 8 cars leftover from the Wisconsin tea party fiasco.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 3C Quick Start would have been up and running by 2014 with planning nearly done for the upgrade to 110 mph by about 2015. Given the federal funding that's been available for passenger rail since, most sections of the 3C should have been increased to 110 mph by now.

the new acela trains -- basically they are of course modern, nicer, and they hold a few more passengers:

 

 

 

Permanent decline in business travel, the bread and butter of Acela service:
Guesses aside, a look at data suggests between 19% and 36% of all air trips are likely to be lost, based on a business-travel analysis I worked on with three airline-industry veterans.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-covid-pandemic-could-cut-business-travel-by-36permanently-11606830490

 

Yet Amtrak still sees its future in Acela and the NEC despite the fact that the long distance/interstate trains are bringing in more revenue during the pandemic. 

1 hour ago, gildone said:

Permanent decline in business travel, the bread and butter of Acela service:
Guesses aside, a look at data suggests between 19% and 36% of all air trips are likely to be lost, based on a business-travel analysis I worked on with three airline-industry veterans.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-covid-pandemic-could-cut-business-travel-by-36permanently-11606830490

 

Yet Amtrak still sees its future in Acela and the NEC despite the fact that the long distance/interstate trains are bringing in more revenue during the pandemic. 

 

Who zapped themselves into the future and returned to tell us that this will be a permanent decline? The hubris of some prognosticators never ceases to amaze me.

1 hour ago, KJP said:

 

Who zapped themselves into the future and returned to tell us that this will be a permanent decline? The hubris of some prognosticators never ceases to amaze me.

  It's been in various business publications in recent months. The pandemic has given companies the opportunity to figure out how to conduct business with less travel.  It's working better than they thought, so in addition to the analysis mentioned in this article,  the business community itself has been saying that they will be traveling less even when it's over. 

^ you need to to play the lotto and buy stock!

 

but seriously, don't forget during normal times long distance is a third of nec ridership. nec is the bread and butter for amtrak, they have been working on service, track and now rolling stock upgrades for awhile now.

 

i'm not doubting there will be fundamental and lasting changes in work environments and travel, but how much remains to be seen post-covid. if we ever get to post-covid that is.

 

the real shame is amtrak was booming last year and incredibly they expected to break even for the first time in 2020 ... until the 'rona struck.

 

ugh.

 

i guess biden is into rail transit though, so hopefully that means good news for the near future for amtrak, but again we'll see about that.

 

my spouse and her friends are going down to dc for the inaugeration, so maybe they will get to experience a new train set. yes new train smell is a thing just like new car smell is lol!

 

edit -right on time with this:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/politics/biden-amtrak/index.html

Edited December 8, 20204 yr by mrnyc

On 12/5/2020 at 10:35 PM, gildone said:

  It's been in various business publications in recent months. The pandemic has given companies the opportunity to figure out how to conduct business with less travel.  It's working better than they thought, so in addition to the analysis mentioned in this article,  the business community itself has been saying that they will be traveling less even when it's over. 

 

I think it's all overblown. I've seen just as many articles from companies saying they intend to travel and meet clients face to face because there's nothing that beats personal contact and personal experiences. In the end, the future is unknowable.

On 11/28/2020 at 12:27 AM, mrnyc said:

the new acela trains -- basically they are of course modern, nicer, and they hold a few more passengers:

 

 

Of course, the equipment on the rest of the system, especially the long distance trains, is falling apart.  The "old" Acela trainsets are only 20 years old.  On the rest of the system, it's 30 or 40 years old.  Amtrak would probably argue that the NEC has higher ridership than the national system (and falsely claim that it's profitable)hence that's why they get new equipment, but ridership is not the standard output metric for the intercity passenger industry.  Amtrak likes to use the ridership" figure to try to paint the NEC in the best possible light and the interstate/long distance trains in the worst possible light.  However, if you were to use the ridership figure on the NEC as Amtrak's percent of total ridership on the NEC, it would be 6%.  94% of the ridership on the corridor is provided by commuter agencies.  That begs the question, how important is Amtrak on the NEC then?   In reality, the standard performance metric in the passenger transportation industry to measure output is passenger-miles.  In that context, the interstate/long distance trains provide the most output.  Measuring ridership is akin to Walmart only measuring how many people enter their stores, but that doesn't measure the output of their stores.  Average spending per customer measures output.  If you look at Amtrak's performance reports they provide total passenger miles for the whole system, but they don't break passenger miles down by business unit (NEC, State Supported, Long Distance).  What they break down by business unit is ridership.

 

Another thing to consider:   Wikipedia calls Amtrak: "a passenger railroad service that provides medium and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous United States and to nine Canadian cities.'  Amtrak would agree with that definition, so exactly how much intercity transportation does Amtrak actually provide on the NEC?  The USDOT definition of intercity trips is "non-recurring trips over 100 miles".  By that definition about half of all NEC Amtrak passengers.  The rest are commuters primarily traveling somewhere along the 94-mile segment between Philadelphia and New York.  

 

So why am I bothering to bring this up?  Because of Amtrak's management's NEC-centric mentality.  Between their bogus route cost accounting system that overstates the cost of the long distance trains by at least $311 million per year (per RPA's report which I posted the summary of further up this thread) and covers up over $1 billion in annual operating losses on the NEC, and deliberately avoiding the use of the standard output metric for their industry, it's apparent that Amtrak deliberately misleading Congress and the American public about to support the false narrative that the NEC is profitable and their strongest business segment.  As long as that false narrative holds, it makes it look passenger rail in the rest of the country, especially on the long distance trains, is not worth the investment.

Edited December 8, 20204 yr by gildone

Federal rail passenger news.......

 

https://moulton.house.gov/press-releases/moulton-boyle-and-delbene-introduce-the-american-high-speed-rail-act

 

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:

 

For inquiries or interviews contact:

[email protected]

 

 

Moulton, Boyle and DelBene Introduce the American High-Speed Rail Act

 

The bill, a blueprint for national high-speed rail, received the endorsements of national transportation advocates and leaders.

 

Washington, DC – Representative Seth Moulton (MA-06) introduced the American High-Speed Rail Act, which would invest $205 billion federal dollars into high-speed rail, create at least 2.6 million direct American jobs over five years, and provide Americans with a new travel option that’s safer than driving, cleaner than flying and never delayed by weather. Representatives Brendan Boyle (PA-02) and Suzan DelBene (WA-01) joined Moulton as original sponsors of the bill.

 

“High-speed rail is faster, cleaner, safer and better for our economy. It will connect people to more jobs in new places, give Americans freedom and choice in how they travel, and put us on par with the rest of the world. This bill is the plan that will get us there,” Moulton said. “We spend vast amounts of money subsidizing planes, which are delayed by weather, and roads, which are crumbling nationwide. We have the chance coming out of this pandemic to think big and think differently. Let’s not waste the opportunity.”

 

Rep. Brendan Boyle said: “The American High-Speed Rail Act is the right plan at the right time for the American transportation system. As we prepare to embark on the era of Build Back Better, it has never been more crucial to address our nation’s infrastructure in a way that supports and strengthens our commitment to improving both the economy and the environment. High-speed rail must be a significant part of our infrastructure plans moving forward as we look to bring in the next generation of safe, efficient rail travel for American business and the American people.”

 

Rep. Suzan DelBene said: “Building a national high-speed rail system would not only reinvigorate the American transportation system but also support our local economy at a critical time. As we recover from dual public health and economic crises, an infrastructure project of this size would create millions of new jobs while investing in cutting-edge, green technology and building a path to new technology and innovation hubs across the country. I am excited to introduce this bill with my colleague Rep. Seth Moulton and work with the Biden administration on developing a stronger high-speed rail system.

 

 

The introduction of the American High-Speed Rail Act follows a 30-page white paper Moulton released in May, in which he outlined a vision for building U.S. high-speed rail and the benefits of doing so.

 

The bill will help build a national high-speed rail system by:

 

• Investing $41 billion annually in high-speed and higher-speed rail through grants administered by the Federal Railroad Administration over 5 years, with incentives for $38 billion or more in nonfederal funding;
• Expanding metrics used by states and cities for transportation planning so they include the potential wider economic benefits projects return to the community in addition to the immediate, important economic and environmental considerations they are currently required to consider.
• Creating funding flexibility and transit-oriented development incentives for non-federal partners, including state and local transportation agencies and private partners; and
• Developing comprehensive, performance-based safety regulations and standards for high-speed rail to reduce project costs and expedite development.

 

If the vision the bill lays out is realized, it would provide the country with a number of transportation improvements, including:

 

• Better connected economic megaregions along high-speed rail corridors to increase productivity and global competitiveness, with a return on investment that far outweighs the cost of capital investment;
• A coordinated, national transportation strategy that creates competition and reduces strain on our highway and aviation networks as high-speed rail serves high-volume corridors up to 750 miles;
• Clean, reliable, and safe transportation from city centers to city centers, with less time in security lines and waiting in terminals, fewer weather disruptions;
• Building more walkable communities with economic development around train stations in city centers;
• Connecting hot job markets to communities where it is more affordable to live;
• Increased national security and exports through increased U.S. independence from imported fuels;
• An America that is more competitive with China’s use of high-speed rail in its Belt and Road Initiative; and
• The creation of new American industries, such as manufacturing and high-grade steel production, even in communities that are far from the proposed new transportation corridors.

 

Moulton has emerged as a leading national advocate for high-speed and commuter rail since he arrived in Congress five years ago. He recently helped secure more than $1 billion for rail transportation in the CARES Act, including $492 million for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

 

He was one of the first elected officials in Massachusetts to endorse the North South Rail Link, a plan that would connect commuter lines servicing Boston, increase their reliability and reduce traffic in America’s most gridlocked city. He also commissioned the Harvard Kennedy School to study transportation issues including North South Rail Link’s true cost and the hidden amount that the state spends subsidizing its gridlocked roads. Harvard found it costs Massachusetts residents $64 billion per year to sit in traffic, whether they own a car or not.

Prior to serving in Congress, Moulton worked as a project manager for a high-speed rail project that is likely to become the first viable high-speed option in the country.

 

Several leading experts and advocates for high-speed rail weighed in on the bill:

 

Former Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said: "We owe it to the next generation of Americans to build the next generation of transportation, and that's high-speed rail. If ever there were a moment for big ideas that force American transportation to evolve and put people to work, it's right now. This plan will do that."

  

Karen Hedlund, who served in the Obama Administration as the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration, said: “Seth Moulton’s proposal represents an extraordinary vision for transportation in a post-COVID America. The funding would be at historic levels, but there are projects in the pipeline in every region of the country that could put this money to work - together with local and private investment - employing hundreds of thousands in remaking the American transportation system while reviving the economy.”

 

Andy Kunz, President and CEO of the U.S. High-Speed Rail Association said: "We commend Congressman Moulton for his committed, visionary leadership on high-speed rail, and have been working with him for the past year providing guidance. High-speed rail has proven all over the world to be a smart, modern transportation mode delivering layers of benefits to the many nations that have it. Congressman Moulton’s work and dedication to bringing high-speed rail to America is exemplary and speaks volumes as to his love of this great nation and his faith in our ability to create a bright, prosperous future for all Americans."

 

MORE QUOTES:

https://moulton.house.gov/press-releases/moulton-boyle-and-delbene-introduce-the-american-high-speed-rail-act

nj transit approves new portal bridge, construction to start in a year:

 

 

https://www.nj.com/news/2020/12/a-new-portal-bridge-is-in-the-home-stretch-after-nj-transit-approves-funding-deal-with-feds.html?outputType=amp

OMG

 

^ I’ve been a regular theater-goer for 30+ years. Starlight Express, which I saw on the original West End run at the Apollo Victoria, remains, comfortably, the absolute worst thing I’ve ever seen. 

11 hours ago, roman totale XVII said:

^ I’ve been a regular theater-goer for 30+ years. Starlight Express, which I saw on the original West End run at the Apollo Victoria, remains, comfortably, the absolute worst thing I’ve ever seen. 

You must go see the Gloria Estefan "On Your Feet!".   The touring version in Cleveland I'm sure would move into your top position!  🤢🤣

 

Back to the rails....

On 12/10/2020 at 2:00 PM, KJP said:

Federal rail passenger news.......

 

https://moulton.house.gov/press-releases/moulton-boyle-and-delbene-introduce-the-american-high-speed-rail-act

 

Moulton, Boyle and DelBene Introduce the American High-Speed Rail Act

 

 

I'm somewhat optimistic this might pass.  $41 billion a year seems tiny and affordable compared to the stimulus bills the Congress has been discussing.   Each increment of funding, however, MUST produce one or more functional results - none of this divide by 50 (state projects) every year and hope for the best.

 

 

cuomo and the gang cut the ribbon for the penn station moynihan train hall today:

 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/video/cuomo-unveils-moynihan-train-hall/vp-BB1cmbBD

 

next up is the penn south empire annex to add at least eight more tracks and redevelop the blocks just to the south.

 

and hopefully new gateway tunnels come along for the ride instead of just patched up old tunnels. we’ll see — 

here’s a nice way to end a rotten year.

 

a bunch of moynihan train hall pics:

 

 

https://gothamist.com/news/cuomo-cuts-ribbon-light-filled-moynihan-train-hall

On 12/31/2020 at 1:21 PM, mrnyc said:

here’s a nice way to end a rotten year.

 

a bunch of moynihan train hall pics:

 

 

https://gothamist.com/news/cuomo-cuts-ribbon-light-filled-moynihan-train-hall

 

I have to admit this place is very impressive. The big letdown is when you descend to the train platform and have to board Amtrak! lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buffalo skyline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

^ and there you have it folks. the very first positive remark evd has ever made on uo. of course he realized it and followed with an immediate negative, but he cant take it back lol. its a sign there is hope for 2021!

California corridors ask Congress to revise Amtrak cost formulas

Amtrak president defends current system, urges agencies to work with company on possible changes

By Bob Johnston | December 11, 2020

 

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2020/12/11-amtrak-accounting-system-remains-source-of-friction-with-operators-of-state-supported-services

 

Amtrak's route cost accounting issue is not going to go away, in fact I expect that calls to force Amtrak to fix it once and for all will continue.  What's funny (and aggravating at the same time) is that in this article, Amtrak President Stephen Gardner laments that he was "caught off guard" by California's letter.  That's a flat out lie.  He knows California is upset.  Amtrak officials were at the same congressional hearing San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority Exec. Dir. Stacey Mortensen testified at in November 2019 where she called this out, asked Congress to fix the problem and to request permission to contract out operation of the San Joaquin corridor

 

Stacey Mortensen's testimony below.  She rips Amtrak a new one in the most polite and professional manner possible: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTpbmgV5748

Edited January 7, 20214 yr by gildone

California is not the only state that is upset with Amtrak. The state of Pennsylvania wants to take over the Keystone Corridor (between Harrisburg and Philadelphia) from Amtrak:

https://pennbizreport.com/news/17859-legislation-would-transfer-amtrak-line-to-pennsylvania/

 

I also have it on good authority that the state of Indiana did not cancel funding for the Hoosier State Amtrak train between Indianapolis and Chicago because they are anti-train or because they did not want to spend the money.  They canceled the Hoosier State funding because they came to view Amtrak as a bad business partner.  For a short time a few years ago, Iowa  Pacific Holdings (now bankrupt) got a contract from the state of Indiana to run the Hoosier State.  Indiana got to see what another operator could do for less money and they got to see how Amtrak did everything they could to sandbag Iowa Pacific (which they did).   I don't know all of the causes of IP's bankruptcy, but Amtrak's shenanigans didn't help.   

 

Anyway, the state of Indiana is about to spend $173 million to double-track 26 miles of the South Shore Electric commuter railroad that runs between NW Indiana and Chicago:
https://www.wibc.com/news/local-indiana/south-shore-double-tracking-project-gets-massive-federal-boost/

 

There are rumors that Indiana may consider an alternative to restoring the Hoosier State that would not involve Amtrak.  Rather than terminate the train at Chicago Union Station they would connect to the South Shore line and terminate the train at Millenium Station or McCormick Place. 

 

Also, Congressman Dan Lipinski, outgoing chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure said last year that he would like to see Metra take over Chicago Union Station.  I wouldn't be surprised if that idea surfaces again at some point. 

among other transity things, cuomo has new gateway tunnels and fixed up old tunnels firmly in sight for his new $306B infrastructure plan:

 

 

more:

https://www.amny.com/news/cuomo-outlines-306b-infrastructure-plan-including-midtown-developments/

Found this stub from 2002...I can't remember who Fran was but I met Cindy at a party and got the digits.  She went to Mt. Holyoke.  Speaking of digits, that looks like a masterlock combination. 

 

 

 

 

 

My bad. This is an Amtrak proposal, but the discussion needs to be in the Ohio Hub/Midwest/ORDC thread...

 

Excellent editorial on the importance of funding passenger rail. 
 

CA: Column: Saving passenger trains could be a small, but real, bipartisan step

If not for the importance of rail in the Northeast corridor for business travelers and members of Congress, train service might very well have gone the way of the telephone booth by now.

 

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/21207971/ca-column-saving-passenger-trains-could-be-a-small-but-real-bipartisan-step

 

 

 

 

A president who spent his career riding commuter trains and a pro-rail Transportation Secretary?! The mind boggles at the possibilities.

18 minutes ago, math said:

A president who spent his career riding commuter trains and a pro-rail Transportation Secretary?! The mind boggles at the possibilities.

 

Rail nerd point of contention... The Acela is not a commuter train.

 

I recall a dozen years ago when Obama was elected and said he wanted America to have high speed trains. A rail advocate friend of mine was working in China and told me the Chinese were all excited about Obama's comments cuz they wanted to supply High-Speed Rail equipment to the USA. My friend had to caution them that, unlike China, just because the president wants something doesn't mean he gets something. He had to explain that there was Congress and constituencies and self-interest groups, and all those things that tend to slow us down in the USA but tend to also keep a lot of political prisoners out of jail or the ground unlike China.