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By Noel T. Braymer

Amtrak still claim that they are losing money with their Long Distance Trains. At the same time Amtrak uses an accounting system which doesn’t meet Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Also most of the costs for Amtrak are on the East Coast and Midwest. Just on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor there is a $28 billion dollars backlog of deferred maintenance. Most Long Distance Trains are run on the tracks of the freight railroads in this country. By law Amtrak gets a discounted price for using the overhead of the freight railroads. The freight railroads resent this because they don’t make much money allowing Amtrak trains to use their tracks. Another factor is the Long Distance Trains generate much more revenue per train than shorter distance trains. This is because passenger miles (the number of miles passengers traveled) is a common measure of productivity of travel services. And Amtrak knows this. I was at a public meeting a few years ago at which a senior Amtrak Vice President bragged about what little money Amtrak paid to operate their trains using the freight railroads. Basically he was pitching was let Amtrak operate your trains and you’ll save money at the railroad’s expense.

As I write this, Senator Moran of Kansas will soon be having a meeting with Amtrak President Anderson about the future of Amtrak’s Long Distance Rail Passenger service. Anderson still has not said if Amtrak will continue to operate the Southwest Chief between Kansas and New Mexico. Amtrak is planning to sell some of its Superliner Long Distance equipment with no plans to buy replacement cars, let alone buying additional Long Distance Trainsets. Amtrak has in the past increased its revenue generation running more trains with more equipment to carry more paying passengers. When Amtrak has expanded Long Distance service, its revenues increased more than the added costs of running these trains. This caused Amtrak to recover a greater percentage of costs from the farebox. But when Amtrak eliminates or cutbacks Long Distance services “to save money”, their revenues go down, but not their costs. Amtrak’s shorter distance trains recover less money from the farebox and need more subsidizing compared to most of its Long Distance services.

Amtrak under Anderson is seeking to expand service between major cities of distances under 750 miles. Amtrak already charges States to subsidize short distance services. A recent example of this was the operation of the 196 mile route of the  “Hoosier State” which Amtrak charged the State of Indiana $3 million dollars a year for a train that ran 4 days a week with a very slow schedule on poor quality tracks between Indianapolis and Chicago. The other 3 days of the week Amtrak’s Cardinal ran on the same route and on to Washington and New York. The “Hoosier State” was largely used by Amtrak to carry their equipment needing repairs to their maintenance base at Beech Grove in Indiana. There are several other State Supported trains, many of them terminating in Chicago. But many of these trains only run one or two times a day and often don’t have connections to other Amtrak trains at Chicago. Amtrak appears to be more interested in charging States money to have them subsidize their services than attempting to operate profitable trains.

The most successful short distance State Supported train Amtrak operates are the Pacific Surfliners. Much of this success is due to local initiatives to expand service. This started in the late 1970’s when the trains ran as the “San Diegan” between San Diego and Los Angeles. Starting in the mid 1970’s with 3 round trips a day, by 1978 the State paid Amtrak to run up to 6 daily trains. The result was ridership more than tripled and farebox recovery greatly improved. Today the Pacific Surfliners run 12 round trips a day between San Diego and Los Angeles. Currently 5 of these trains are extended to Santa Barbara and 2 of those trains run as far as San Luis Obispo which is roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. As track improvements are completed the plan is for running 14 round trips daily between San Diego and Los Angeles with 6 round trips extended to Santa Barbara and 3 round trips to San Luis Obispo in two to three years.

It is ironic that the markets Amtrak President Anderson wants to expand on, are the same being sought by Virgin Trains USA. While Virgin Trains plan to be profitable, much of its success will depend on revenue created by increased property values on land owned by Virgin Trains USA at and around its stations. Also Virgin is planning faster service with trains capable of running up to 125 miles per hour between major cities on tracks they control with right of way often leased from friendly government agencies or existing rail lines. Amtrak on the other hand for most new routes will have to depend on gaining track access from the freight railroads. Good luck with that. The railroads are increasingly interested in what is called “Precision Railroading”. What this boils down to is running fewer, longer, faster freight trains on a tight schedule with less need to have or maintain extra sidings and double tracking. This will also lead to fewer jobs in the rail industry. The freight railroads planning to run Precision Railroading will not welcome more Amtrak passenger trains. Plus the fact Amtrak is likely counting on being subsidized by States to operate these new corridor trains while not having to pay more to gain track access.

What could all this mean for the Long Distance passenger trains? Increasingly in California local governments work with the freight railroads to upgrade tracks to allow better rail passenger service that doesn’t interfere with freight service. Also in California, many miles of railroads are publicly owned and shared by the freight railroads. If we were to create a new Long Distance Passenger train service in this country, we would need funding to upgrade the railroads which will allow more and faster passenger and freight rail service. In many cases the railroads need improvements across the county. Such investments would likely also stimulate economic growth both in much of the rural areas of the country as well as in many cities across the country. By using some of the money now given to Amtrak, a new Long Distance National Passenger Rail System could be created. Some of this funding would be used as seed money to buy new equipment and to expand rail passenger service. This new income would make it possible for the Long Distance Trains to pay the railroads more to use their tracks. Also Government funding could be used for more grade separations and additional tracks and track upgrades to allow faster, more reliable rail service with less passenger train interference to freight service. Also improved passenger service will help stimulate the local economies of many of the towns with train stations.

One advantage of Long Distance rail passenger service is they serve many markets. Long Distance trains stop at major cities and small towns and can run 24 hours a day for days at a time generating income. Running two or three Long Distance Trains on a route gives passengers more options and markets to ride the train. Despite what Amtrak claims, long distance travel markets are generally the most profitable services because ticket prices are higher if passengers go a thousand miles, than if they go 20 miles. This is why most passenger services use passenger miles to measure their productivity. Amtrak loves to talk about passenger counts. But many of their passengers travel short distances which doesn’t produce much money.