Friday, Aug 29, 2008
Air disasters spotlight a need for better train service -- but American transportation policy has neglected railroads for decades.
Nov 21, 2001 | At first glance, September's airborne attacks might seem like a clear vindication for Amtrak. With all flights in the country grounded in the days just after Sept. 11, the national railroad honored airline tickets from stranded travelers and drew a stampede of passengers. "Virtually every train" sold out, says an Amtrak spokesman; the company's phone reservation line was almost unreachable for days, and unreserved trains in the heavily traveled northeast corridor experienced standing-room-only conditions.
At the same time -- and in contrast to airline industry woes -- Amtrak ridership has actually grown slightly nationwide. In October, ridership on express Metroliner and high-speed Acela trains in the northeast corridor between Washington and Boston was up 43 percent over a year ago, and a third to one-half of those trains have been selling out and turning passengers away. On long-distance routes, Amtrak also reports that 40 percent of its sleeper cars have been selling out as well.
"We're in an environment today when 20 to 25 percent fewer passengers are flying than they were a year ago, and our ridership is about 1 percent higher than the year before," says spokesman Bill Schulz of Amtrak's nationwide performance in October. "That is pretty phenomenal." Amtrak carries an average of 60,000 passengers a day -- the equivalent of hundreds of flights.
While there is significant new interest in trains, however, the future for the national passenger-rail system remains unclear. Sept. 11 and its aftermath have brought Amtrak more riders, but also an increase in the railway's expenses. Amtrak has been paying for new security measures such as round-the-clock watches on bridges and tunnels, as well as greater operational costs on older cars and other equipment that has been brought out of storage to help meet new demand. Earlier this year, Amtrak also mortgaged part of New York's Penn Station, and the railroad is in a $200 million legal dispute with the builder of its new high-speed Acela trains.
Political developments have been confusing as well. Proposed federal and state investment in high-speed rail service around the country has been under consideration for years, but the legislation still has not moved. Unlike the airlines, Amtrak -- which, if it were an airline, would rank as the seventh or eighth largest in the country -- has so far received no emergency aid or additional funds to deal with increased security costs.
Perhaps most surprising, however, is the Nov. 9 vote by the Amtrak Reform Council -- a bipartisan commission with a congressional mandate to oversee efforts by Amtrak to break even. The ARC issued a finding that Amtrak will not meet a fall 2002 deadline for running in the black. The decision on what to do next passes back to Congress, but Amtrak is now required to draw up plans for its own liquidation, even while carrying more passengers and shouldering new responsibilities in the wake of Sept. 11.
All this turmoil raises a natural question. Stephen B. Goddard, a transportation historian and the author of "Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the American Century," says that September's terrorist attacks have uncovered America's "soft underbelly of vulnerability in the lack of an integrated transportation system." But at a time when air tragedies have highlighted the role that passenger rail can play, why is the U.S. rail network still so hamstrung? How could it possibly be under renewed political attack? The problem is especially striking compared to the situation in many other countries, where trains regularly run faster -- well over 100 mph in some cases -- and far more conveniently.
The answer is a complicated mix of factors, not least of which is a long-running deliberate government effort to promote modes of transportation like highway and air travel at the expense of rail. But there has also been a basic failure on the part of some politicians to understand a basic point about rail travel: It doesn't have to make money, or even break even, to be an important cog in a healthy economy.
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