The big ax just fell. Long distance to 3x/week.

The Amtrak portion is $1 billion and is meant to fund operations from December to March. There was an Amtrak town hall today and management indicated that if the proposed transit funding in the bipartisan bill makes it into whatever final bill there is they should be able to reinstate daily long distance service and recall some furloughed staff.

See the Rail Passenger Associations website for the detailed breakdown of that $43 billion.

Here is the breakout of the bipartisan bill.

Gang of 8 Transportation Relief Proposal: $45 billion
Amtrak: $1 billion [Requested: $2.4 billion;
Transit: $15 billion [Requested: at least $32 billion];
Airlines: $17 billion – [Requested: $25 billion];
Airports: $4 billion – [Requested: $13 billion];
Private buses: $8 billion – [Requested: $10 billion].

How much is going to restaurant, hotel, cruise and theme park employees?......

They can wish for a bill, but that doesn't mean it will happen.

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 5:59 pm The Amtrak portion is $1 billion and is meant to fund operations from December to March. There was an Amtrak town hall today and management indicated that if the proposed transit funding in the bipartisan bill makes it into whatever final bill there is they should be able to reinstate daily long distance service and recall some furloughed staff.

Regardless of what apparently was said, "first crack" at that B is to buy gas and pay someone to drive the trains.

I would not get hopes all that high about an LD frequency restoration. For those here who hold they have a place as a transportation resource, as distinct from something that interferes with efficient railroad operations, I wouldn't get "hopes all that high". As I have consistently maintained throughout my twenty years of participating around here, they were to have been gone in an orderly manner, i.e. chop The Cardinal and Sunset Limited before you chop the Lake Shore and Capitol, starting around '76 and likely taking at least five years to complete (never forgetting that had either RPSA70 never been enacted or the roads declined to sign up, there wouldn't be, post de-reg, an LD left today), a tangible step has been taken to be rid of 'em and those "who want 'em gone" are not about to forfeit this step.

Further, let us not forget that the "Lions" from both Houses and the aisles within each, who obstructed cost effective legislation with their "pet trains" are going or gone. The new breed like AOC, and those her age or party notwithstanding, think of Amtrak only as a means to get to get to Wash from a Corridor point. Even "Amtrak Joe" is really only "Corridor Joe".

I don't see why there has to be a conspiracy theory or evil plan to end long distant trains. It seems that every time there is an adjustment in schedules we hear that it is an irrevokable step toward ending all LD trains - and such statement is often accompanied by calling the current Amtrak CEO by a rude if not derogatory name. Why can't the current cuts be taken at face value? A temporary way to save money during the pandemic? Or are people so accustomed to Amtrak wasting money that no one can believe they would consider measures simply for cost savings?

If Amtrak was born to die they certainly have done a horrible job reaching their goal.

Mr. Lurker, you won't hear it from me that Amtrak is about to, or should, die. To be rid of an ancilliary LD product that, despite how the advocacy community "smokescreens" to the contrary, provides little in transportation value, unnecessarily interferes with the efficient operation of the investor owned Class I roads, and is becoming less a catalyst to receive public funding, hardly means that rail passenger service provided by a government agency "where it counts", should be folded.

The more these seven roads implement Precision Railroading, which is favorably affecting "the bottom line" and hence "shareholder value", the more operating a train on a fixed schedule often contrary to the flow of traffic dictated by PSR, will interfere with such.

It won't happen overnight, but it's time for the Adios drumheads.

disclaimer: author long UNP: YTD 11/30 12.9%; S&P 12.1%.

Well, if it's all about Wall Street, then have at it. Kill Nixon's Amtrak and sell the scrap to Carnegie Mellon.

NRGeep wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:13 pm Well, if it's all about Wall Street, then have at it. Kill Nixon's Amtrak and sell the scrap to Carnegie Mellon.

Or give it to Brightline, Rocky Mountaineer and others... (Sorry!)

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:35 am

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 5:59 pm The Amtrak portion is $1 billion and is meant to fund operations from December to March. There was an Amtrak town hall today and management indicated that if the proposed transit funding in the bipartisan bill makes it into whatever final bill there is they should be able to reinstate daily long distance service and recall some furloughed staff.

Regardless of what apparently was said, "first crack" at that B is to buy gas and pay someone to drive the trains.

I would not get hopes all that high about an LD frequency restoration. For those here who hold they have a place as a transportation resource, as distinct from something that interferes with efficient railroad operations, I wouldn't get "hopes all that high". As I have consistently maintained throughout my twenty years of participating around here, they were to have been gone in an orderly manner, i.e. chop The Cardinal a tangible step has been taken to be rid of 'em and those "who want 'em gone" are not about to forfeit this step.

I don’t know. I’ve watched a number of the recent congressional things - I’m not seeing this big drive or push from really anywhere to cut any long distance routes let alone all long distance routes. While I understand your viewpoint about the impact to Class Is I frankly don’t see where the current management cares really two licks about class Is in fact they constantly push for preference enforcement which would conceivably affect class Is even more.

Clearly the current management wants to grow corridors - but if they have to run long distance trains in order to do so and Congress throws money at them to do both I don’t think you’ll hear them complain too loudly. I think they’d love to ditch a route like the chief where they have a ton of track to maintain or routes like the sunset and cardinal - but do you honestly think they want to eliminate, say, the Auto Train which is the only train system wide (including corridors) that they haven’t made any amenity cuts to during Covid?

Furthermore I may be off base but I am probably one of the few who believes that the 3x a week cut is exactly what management said - a temporary way to save costs during the pandemic and isn’t a ploy to eliminate the network.

It seems to me that the main problem with cutting from 7x to3x a week to save money is that it doesn't save money. It didn't when they tried it before (I still can't imagine what got into Mercer to suggest it) and it doesn't now.

Apparently the thinking is that if you want to make money running mixed trains you ignore costs and if you want to save money by cutting frequency you ignore revenue.

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:27 pm Furthermore I may be off base but I am probably one of the few who believes that the 3x a week cut is exactly what management said - a temporary way to save costs during the pandemic and isn’t a ploy to eliminate the network.

Let's hope that Amtrak keeps their promise and eventually restored daily LD service. The problem with tri-weekly service (and having daily service in some popular corridors in general such as NY to Chicago) is that their frequencies are too limited for existing and [most importantly] potential customers to choose from. For example, the only trains that stop at Cleveland, OH and Salt Lake City, UT stop in the middle of the night and have amshacks. If these corridors had at least twice or tri-daily service, then those trains would be arriving at major cities and small towns at more desirable times and would give customers a wide variety of times to choose what train to board, thus attracting more passengers and therefore, profit.

NRGeep wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:13 pm Well, if it's all about Wall Street, then have at it. Kill Nixon's Amtrak and sell the scrap to Carnegie Mellon.

WOW. You just described PSR (freight side) to a "T". The PSR plan is nothing more than "asset stripping" on a grand scale. Once the railroads have been bleed dry, the carcass will be left for the government to deal with.

BTW - replace Carnegie Mellon with Goldman Sachs. One must keep up with the times now .....