Railroad Forums 

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

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1545678  by R36 Combine Coach
 
gprimr1 wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:35 pm On the other hand, the timing is weird, since traffic is already been cut down due to lock downs, and things are reopening now, the only thing I could think of is maybe they are preparing for a second wave?
More than likely, if not. For example, Cuomo is being "cautious" about reopening, citing to be "better
prepared" for the next wave, just as in 1918. He noted that regions that were more cautious in 1918 did fare
better in the late fall and winter.

MLB has been having issues, as if play resumes, the MLB commissioner has stated a key item of not to play beyond September due to a further wave (and wipe out of postseason).
 #1545685  by NY&LB
 
If you think everyone in the building hasn't started calculating what they need to do to "hang on" until the possible Inauguration of a new administration you're wrong.
It has been discussed many times in various threads that no administration has been "kind" to AMTRAK so hanging on for an administration change and hoping that billions would be pumped into AMTRAK does not make any sense.

The recent GOP sponsored stimulus bill provided $1.02 billion for Amtrak in grants (= no payback required):

$1.02 billion to support Amtrak’s ability to operate passenger rail service on the Northeast Corridor ($492 million) and National Network ($526 million) and protect Amtrak workers. An additional $239 million is available to Amtrak to cover the cost of FAST Act-required payments to Amtrak for State-supported services. States shall not be required to pay Amtrak more than 80% for use of Amtrak facilities pursuant to section 209 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA).

That amount is is approximately 56% of the AMTRAK FY20 funding but is only 30% of AMTRAK's FY19 revenue making the stimulus fall below the likely FY20 revenue loss due to CV19. Remember that FY20 started on 1 October so CV19 lost revenue did not start to hit hard until March of 2020, 5 months into FY20.

I do not think I have seen THIS https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/proj ... equest.pdf
posted here but it contains a wealth of data.
Last edited by NY&LB on Wed Jun 17, 2020 5:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #1545690  by Tadman
 
The term "contained" is not a term of art, so your definition may be different than mine, but the original quarantine-for-all was very clearly communicated as a method to flatten the curve of infection rates so as not to overload hospitals. We also didn't know much of the behavior of the disease.

As of now that curve has been flattened. Perhaps "contained" is the wrong word, but the ship-borne hospitals that were in New York and LA were dismissed and the field hospitals set up in convention centers in most major cities did not see heavy use and were disbanded as well. We are also much farther along in development of therapeutic drugs and production of ventilators is ramped up.
 #1545692  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Unlike "over here", Mr. Benton, your authorities will track down these new cases and take appropriate corrective action.

Your Prime Minister Jacinda sure seems to be a heads up gal.

Let's just say "we're having a summer vacation" over here. Whenever the CV returns and the Election is past, lockdown conditions will be reimposed.

Amtrak's FY21 Business Plan simply reflects this unfortunate reality.
 #1545696  by mtuandrew
 
While a lot of folks are working to get four years of Joe + eight of the woman who would be Veep, let’s not forget what was supposed to happen in ‘16. So, train advocates will need to be prepared to fight for service by hook or by crooks.
 #1545712  by gokeefe
 

gprimr1 wrote:On the other hand, the timing is weird, since traffic is already been cut down due to lock downs, and things are reopening now, the only thing I could think of is maybe they are preparing for a second wave?
Pretty sure it's related to the expiration of CARES Act funding for transportation. The airlines are up against the same date. So far they have avoided mass layoffs but once the federal support ends on September 30 they won't have a choice.

Amtrak did the best they could to keep everyone working. Im sure they were required to anyways but I still give them credit for trying. I think they could have justified more cutbacks than they did.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 #1545753  by mmi16
 
Amtrak is just following the Penn Central passenger playbook that was in effect before the creation of Amtrak - make the 'service' so miserable and erratic that any possible demand for the service is killed.
 #1545755  by mtuandrew
 
mmi16 wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 6:33 pm Amtrak is just following the Penn Central passenger playbook that was in effect before the creation of Amtrak - make the 'service' so miserable and erratic that any possible demand for the service is killed.
I mean, that’s been the case for years :P Amtrak doesn’t need a pandemic to give shoddy service!

It’ll be a rough two years for LDs. This year because vacations are going to be so limited, next year because Amtrak will have to compete with every airline to get passengers for a still-limited vacation crowd. It won’t kill Amtrak, but the Sunset Limited and Cardinal are gonna have a time of it trying to justify their existence as through trains.
 #1545759  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Mr. Stephens, the "idea" has been forty five years in the making. When I started out with the MILW after my '70 U of Illinois graduation, the CUS office washroom walls gave "this nonsense" (labor intensive trains on which the roads were losing real $$$, honoring existing labor agreements - and now they are going to make money???) five years. It looked like the '79 Carter Cuts were "getting the ball rolling" with its cuts to the "sacrosanct Basic System" (Floridian and National). The '94 Clinton "Mercer" Cuts were just chopping away at the brush that had built up since RPSA70, and the '04 Bush "Prunings" were really no more than that ('05 Sunset East is just suspended, lest we forget).

Volks, "I was there" on A-Day; hardly high up, but "there". The LD System was simply to be an "ease the pain" transition lasting about five years.

Sorry if some around here wonder why I'm constantly putting forth with all this "anti" diatribe, CV has simply demonstrated it's time for marginal programs, such as Amtrak, and so far as I'm concerned (AFAIC),"the axe" to LD services should be for good.
 #1545772  by Tadman
 
I think it's important to distinguish being "Anti-long distance" from being pragmatic or realistic.

I'm not anti-long distance. I love riding. I love when we compared maps and I have a "goals map" of routes around the world including China, Australia, India, etc... I geek out on reading about the last two long distance (regional?) trains in Brazil, hauled by modern GEVOs with brand new Romanian coaches.

But here in the US, for any number of reasons, they don't work too well. There are population density issues, competing autos and airplanes, shoddy service, old cars, late trains, interference from freight trains, little political will, the list goes on and on and on. We could make a list a mile long of Amtrak's problems.

At the end of the day, if Congress can't fix the post office despite constitutional requirements to operate such, how is the long distance network ever going to be fixed? It serves few people and requires money.

This is why I keep advocating for a functional and useful regional network. You can serve something like 40 states (look at my map) very well and sell lots of passenger miles. You can get cars off the road, help pollution and traffic, and stimulate economic development in a meaningful way.
 #1545774  by SouthernRailway
 
Let's please remember that current LD routes USED to be corridors.

For example, Washington-Atlanta used to have a slew of trains on it: some expresses, some mid-grade and some locals. Back in the 1950s and even the 1960s, it was the equivalent of today's corridors.

Many of the LD routes could be corridors again--and based on population growth, should be.

They serve few people only because there are few trains on them.

Time to expand many of the LD routes, not shrink them.

In any event, it's insane to maintain an infrastructure (stations, maintenance, crew bases) to support only one train a day in each direction. Airlines surely wouldn't bother maintaining airports and other infrastructure to serve only one flight a day. Surely there are some efficiencies that could be done to address this.
 #1545777  by bostontrainguy
 
mtuandrew wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 7:01 am While a lot of folks are working to get four years of Joe + eight of the woman who would be Veep, let’s not forget what was supposed to happen in ‘16. So, train advocates will need to be prepared to fight for service by hook or by crooks.
Um if I remember right, Joe had eight years to do something to make Amtrak really special. I was excited and thought at the time that rail was in for a great ride including some actual high-speed trains around the country and on the NEC. Nothing much happened. "Amtrak Joe" is more of a passenger than an engineer.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 34