Get on board!

Maybe the time will come. More and more people are turning to rail transportation as gasoline price keep rising and the airlines do crazy things, like eliminating planes as well as the number of flights and cities to which they will fly. Ridership is up almost all over the country: 20% in North Carolina, 19% between Chicago and St. Louis, 20% on the Boston-NY-Washington Acela run. but most of the developed world laughs at us. You can get from London to Paris, 213 miles, in 2 hours 15 minutes which is about the same distance as NY-Washington and our trains take 45 minutes longer. Having seen a tv segment on this line it's easy to see why it takes longer: the track is not always in a straight line, the engineer must slow down for curves to avoid going off the track. Fixable? Not without a lot of trouble, no doubt, but "where there's a will, there's a way". And we need to find the way to do things like this in addition to a lot more in order to get Åmerica's rail system up to snuff!!

Administration meddling

Aha! Gotcha! Those of us in the know acknowledge the fact that the present administration is anti-Amtrak, even probably anti-transcontinental passenger rail. Receipt of a rail association newsletter proves it. I don't know when the National Surface Transportation Report came out but an entire section dealing with pro-electric rail was deleted, leaving the readers unaware of some pretty important and useful information.

The opening paragraph of this deleted section states:

"It is the view of the Commission that public transportation, especially in the form of electric railways, must and will play a significantly larger role in Americans' mobility. Federal transportation policy should not only accommodate but encourage this development."

It goes on to discuss the factors that indicate a need for increased public transportation:
1. Increasing traffic congestion
2. Failure of many urban areas to meet Federally-mandated air quality standards.
3. Renewed congestion on newly constructed freeways.
4. Negative impact of automobiles.
5. The rising price of gasoline.

"Rail transit has repeatedly demonstrated its success in drawing riders from choice, people who have a car and could drive but choose to take transit instead, while buses generally carry only the transit-dependent. . . rail transit, but not buses, has a significant potential impact on traffic congestion.

Many cities once had electric railways but they lost them mostly due to massive government intervention in favor of highways and cars. And they lost them quite a long time ago. By the 1920s one-third of the streetcar companies were bankrupt and after WWII the pressure was on to convert to buses.

In conclusion this part of the excised section states: "In the long term, it should be the objective of Federal transportation policy to provide every American the option of mobility without an automobile. In a 21st century where oil supplies will be increasingly uncertain, such a policy will give our country needed security in the form of security of mobility. For a nation as dependent on mobility as America, security of mobility is as important as security of life, liberty and property."

Now if that last bit doesn't speak for increased passenger rail transportation, electric or otherwise, I don't know what does? Why did the administration delete it?

Encouraging thoughts

More and more reports turn up every day about increasing ridership on Amtrak. As the cost of gasoline keeps rising more people are turning to public transportation and are saying they want more.

A report today in The Buffalo News (New York State) leads off with a headline "Nation must commit to passenger rail travel". Douglas Turner finds fault, justifiably so, with Sen. John McCain who is the "least likely to care about a national transportation policy"; he is not alone in the GOP as most Republicans think Amtrak should make money, not subsidize it. It is unfortunate to note that neither of Democratic presidential prospects has stepped forward to say anything about a national rail system. Turner points out that it is the way "people of modest means, and people who can't fly or drive, get from one downtown center to another. Amtrak's intrepid customers include the elderly, armed services personnel, students, kids and commuters who don't have limousines".

It's a shame that this nation, once in the forefront of intercity, transcontinental passenger rail transportation has, under the present administration, has fallen so far behind what most of Europe has done. High speed rail is expected there. Good service has not been neglected. Governments--and their citizens--are ready, willing and able to provide funds for the improvement of track and equipment.

Will a new administration (expectedly Democratic) do something to improve the situation? Who knows--as we can't get any answers from the two contenders. As for Sen. McCain, were he to win the election, forget Amtrak and any other government supported rail system. If each state was unable to provide the funding for passenger rail we'd end up with a fractured system, composed of bits and pieces to satisfy commuters in local areas.

Not what we need.

Amtrak overseas?

Thanks to a Google search more news about Amtrak, this time from the Railway Gazette International (UK). It's a report about Amtrak's President and CEO Alexander Kummant requesting $4.67 billion in subsidy for next year (2009). Surely that's a small amount to help Amtrak pursue improvements, both for operating support and capital projects. It would be nicer if somebody woke up and realized we could--and should--do more to make national passenger rail more attractive to the traveling public.

Spreading the news

Google's a great aid in gathering information about what's being said about Amtrak around the country. The Detroit Free Press on April 16 thinks a "new plan for transportation" would be a good idea although it will require "vision and courage". Well, that last bit is going to be hard to find. I found one reporter who said he'd sent all the present presidential candidates a questionnaire about public transportation and none of them responded. Surprise? Not here. Some things are so far down their list of topics to raise for discussion it doesn't bear thinking about.

On April 18-19 the Iowa City Press-Citizen and WQAD of Iowa City say a study on regional railroading supports "restoring passenger service in the Quad cities". It was more than 30 years ago that the area lost the Rock Island Line but now they believe they can get nearly two hundred thousand riders. And that's just between Iowa City and Chicago!

And that's two mid-western areas only.

As gasoline prices continue their upward curve more and more people are going to seek public transportation. Now we need the government get out of the road-building and airline support businesses and give serious thought to Amtrak!!!!!

Encouraging?

Recent news reports about the problems most airlines are having (cancellations, lost or delayed luggage) encourage those of us who have high hopes for Amtrak and the American rail system in general. A recent column in the Detroit Free Press makes a good point about the lack of a national transportation policy. The current administration has been anti-Amtrak from the beginning, trying constantly to break it up into state-funded pieces. More and more people are coming to appreciate the varied pleasures of riding a train: going from city center to city center, being able to get some business done comfortably, perhaps even getting a decent meal (or food, at any rate).

Yes, problems continue to plague Amtrak. Full funding is still fought by the current administration, relatively nothing allowed in the present budget. But maybe things will change. They will change if the public has to face higher gas prices and increasing problems with the airlines.

Same old news

A year later and our famously neglected rail system faces the same old problem: funding!! And the same president rides the same train as in previous budget proposals. At a time when the people are turning more and more to public transportation he rejects funding for this in addition to funding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, protection of the environment and transportation infrastructure. I'd pose the question: Why? But the answer lies in his dedication to throwing more money at the mess in Iraq. Where once we had a trillion dollar surplus we are now so far in debt, our children's children will be trying to catch up.

I'm not going to continue to rant and rave about his views regarding domestic priorities versus a single-minded approach to a futile war in a part of the world that, if we don't take care, will be pleading to become a state or a territory of the US.

Instead I must describe a recent Amtrak trip which would have made a first-time rider never want to ride a train again!

Planning a Christmas holiday to the west coast from the eastern seaboard involved leaving my home town at nearly two in the morning heading north to Washington, DC. With 80 other passengers, some lugging blankets and pillows to make their coach seats a bit more comfortable for the small children in tow, we were glad to get into our roomettes and fall asleep to the gentle rock and rumble of the train. Not too late in Washington we had plenty of time to find some lunch before our afternoon departure on the Capitol for Chicago. Comfortably settled in our roomettes, I read a while, looked out at the scenery and about 7:30 enjoyed dinner in the diner. The following day went smoothly until we arrived at Elkhart, IN shortly after breakfast when we were informed of a freight derailment some 60 miles west. We were not alone in our inability to proceed, the North Shore Ltd from New York was right behind us. Since neither of us could move, an initial proposal was to join the two trains and work their way around the derailment. However, it soon appeared this would not be possible and all passengers were to be transported to Chicago by bus, a two hour ride. If only it had been as simple as that sounds. Not only the people had to be moved, so did all the luggage, checked bags from the baggage car as well as one's personal things. Everything was unloaded onto the concrete station platform, snow covered and icy. For younger people this was not much of a problem but older folks had to struggle with finding their bags and then struggling to get them to the bus and load them by themselves. Once I would not have had a problem with doing this but not now!

At least the bus was comfortable and warm. The arrival in Chicago's Union Station was hectic, to say the least. No one was on hand to help with getting one's bags or to guide us to our connecting train. The departure area was a madhouse with lines of people stretching from one end of the lower level to the other. An Amtrak employee finally appeared to help those of us trying to find the platform for the Empire Builder and eventually we were settled in our compartment, ready to relax and enjoy our run to Seattle. Our relaxation was relatively short-lived. While enjoying our dinner a conductor came around looking for passengers in another sleeper, the one next to ours. It had a technical problem and was going to be disconnected from the train and put on a siding. Accommodations for the passengers in that car would have to be relocated and we were caught in that relocation. We had opted for the accessible bedroom but someone from the other car needed the accessibility more than we (when I saw her size I understood how she could not use a roomette or the standard wc). We were asked if we would accept a roomette for the one night (she was departing at a stop the next day) and I could not in all good conscience say no.

So now we were not only behind the schedule because of our late arrival in Chicago we lost another hour or more as the defective car was removed from the train. This affected the Seattle arrival so badly that the following morning, about seven o'clock, we learned that we would be bused from Spokane to Seattle, a four-hour bus ride. With about an hour to dress and have breakfast (brought to us by our car attendant) we braced ourselves for a repeat of the Elkhart procedure. All luggage off-loaded to the platform, find your own bag, drag it to the bus, load it on by yourself and then find a seat on the bus. And this bus was not as comfortable as the other, nor were we able to get seats together--younger, sprier passengers got theirs by the windows. There was a brief stop at a MacDonald's so we could get some lunch (on our own dime) and arrival in Seattle was some four or four and a half hours later.

After a Merry Christmas visit with relatives we thought our return journey via the Empire Builder, the Capitol and the Star would surely be trouble-free. But such was not the case. Our departure from Seattle was delayed from a scheduled 4:45 departure to actual boarding at 7:30pm. Once on board we learned what was probably the reason for the delayed arrival, thus departure, there was no diner on board and would not be all the way to Chicago. We saw the troubled diner on a siding when we went through Havre, Montana. To give credit when due, we were not all that late getting into Chicago but just late enough for the Capitol to have already departed. Faced with an option of Amtrak putting us up in Chicago overnight or taking the Lake Shore (departure at 10pm for New York) we opted to take the Lake Shore, stay overnight in New York and catch the Star as it began its run south from New York.

Many would blame Amtrak for all the disruptions but it doesn't take a wizard to see that the problems were not Amtrak's. The freight derailment would have been just that, a derailment on its own track if Amtrak had a dedicated rail of its own. The problems with defective equipment would not have happened if funding had allowed Amtrak to properly maintain its equipment and/or acquire new cars as needed.

Does this change my mind about travel in the US? Not a bit. I'd like more help when it comes to having to transfer to a bus but I really do prefer having a relatively comfortable, warm, place to sit or put my head down to what happens all too frequently to air transport.