Amtrak a “Failure”? Hardly

ALL INDIANA ABOARD The Official Newsletter of the Volume 6, Number 1 January 2019 IN THIS ISSUE: Amtrak to Improve National Page Two Amtrak a “Failure”? Hardly. Here’s Network with New Locomotives How We See It. (The following release was issued December 21, 2018 by Page Three Amtrak Media Relations. It is URPA Responds to Stephen also available in the Amtrak Gardner Media Center) Page Five Siemens Mobility awarded Why Is Passenger Rail in the USA $850 million contract for 75 Crumbling? new Tier 4 locomotives and Interpretation and Commentary: associated services The STB Publishes Decision on Nickel Plate Corridor WASHINGTON – With de- A Siemens Charger locomotive with Cummins engine. Photo cour- mand for Amtrak service at tesy of Siemens. Page Six record levels, Amtrak will ac- Book Review: An Anti- quire new mainline passenger diesel locomotives from Siemens Mobility to replace its aging Na- Passenger-Rail Manifesto tional Network locomotive fleet. These initial 75 locomotives will be used principally for Amtrak’s Long Distance train service, with options to purchase more, for use on some State Supported Page Nine routes and for future growth. Bullets from the Board “These new locomotives will offer increased reliability, more hauling power, improved safety Page Ten features and lower emissions,” said Amtrak President & CEO Richard Anderson. Riding the Rails “Siemens Mobility is honored and grateful to Amtrak for this opportunity to assist Amtrak in their mis- Page Eleven sion to provide safe, world-class, environmentally conscious technology for their long-distance ser- Discounts vices,” said Michael Cahill, president of Siemens Mobility’s North America rolling stock business. For More Information… The new locomotives will offer the latest safety systems including Crash Energy Management Page Twelve and Positive Train Control. Capable of speeds up to 125 MPH, the locomotives will have 4,400 IPRA Membership Form horsepower capable 16-cylinder Cummins QSK95 diesel engines with modern control systems and Alternating Current (AC) propulsion. The diesel engine will come equipped with the latest Tier 4 emissions technology, reducing nitrogen oxide by over 89 percent and particulate mat- ter by 95 percent, and provide an average of 10 percent savings in diesel fuel consumption. Delivery of the new locomotives will begin in summer 2021, with passenger service beginning in fall 2021. They will power trains used on the Auto Train, California Zephyr, Capitol Limited, Cardinal, City of New Orleans, Coast Starlight, Crescent, Empire Builder, Lake Shore (continued) www.indianahighspeedrail.org Hoosiers for Passenger Rail or Indiana Passenger Rail Association PAGE 2: ALL ABOARD INDIANA JANUARY 2019 (“Amtrak to Improve National Network…” continued from page Amtrak a “Failure”? Hardly. 1) Limited, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle. All locomotives are Here’s How We See It. expected to be in service by 2024. Maintenance activities Written by Stephen Gardner, Senior Executive Vice President, across the network will be supported by a supplemental mul- Amtrak, December 19, 2018 tiyear Technical Support Spares Supply Agreement (TSSSA). Over the past eight months, Amtrak is paying for the new locomotives through avail- Railway Age has published 31 able funds and will comply with Buy American provisions. op-eds about Amtrak—many They will be built at Siemens Mobility’s rail manufacturing more than it published on the plant in Sacramento, California, a facility which uses solar freight railroad, railroad supply power and employs more than 1,300 people. and transit industries com- Stephen Gardner bined. The majority focused on Siemens Mobility has established a robust and diverse base of long-distance trains, which ac- U.S. suppliers across the country to support the production of its count for only 15% of Amtrak ridership, and their dining car current Charger diesel locomotives, including Cummins, which food. Most of the others depicted Amtrak as a “failure” manufactures its engines in its Seymour, Indiana facility. facing “the sword of Damocles,” to quote one op-ed author. They urged privatization of Amtrak’s operations and Siemens Mobility’s Charger locomotives are currently operat- Northeast Corridor infrastructure, and “open access” to ing in several state-supported Amtrak routes in California, freight railroads’ lines for new passenger rail operators. Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, and Washington. These op-eds ignored important facts that might surprise The new locomotives will primarily replace the aging Amtrak readers of Railway Age: P40 and P42 locomotives, some of which have been in service Amtrak’s financial performance in fiscal year 2018 was for more than 25 years. the best in its 47-year history. Amtrak generated record revenues and has carried more than 30 million customers for each The new locomotives are part of Amtrak’s long-term planned of the past seven years. Its $168 million operating loss was its series of improvements for fleet, infrastructure and stations. lowest ever, without adjustment for the more than 500% in- Other modern equipment includes new Acela trainsets arriv- flation since operations began in 1971, and a 53% reduction ing in 2021 and ongoing improvements continue at New York from just five years ago. Penn Station and new construction at Moynihan Train Hall, in Amtrak covered 95% of its operating costs from revenues addition to expanded development of the major stations at last year. That’s a much higher cost recovery than any of the U.S. Chicago, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia. commuter rail services provided by the four “private sector” com- panies repeatedly touted as Amtrak replacements (two of which To view images of the new locomotives, please check out our are actually owned by foreign countries). Amtrak’s cost recovery gallery here. also far exceeds the 7% cost recovery reported during the first nine months of 2018 by the Miami – West Palm Beach Brightline/ About Amtrak® Virgin service that several op-eds cite as a model. Amtrak offers a more comfortable and convenient travel ex- Amtrak’s financial performance compares favorably to inter- perience with free Wi-Fi on most trains, plenty of leg room and no middle seat. With our state and commuter partners, national railways that receive much higher levels of public fund- we move people, the economy and the nation forward, carry- ing. France’s national passenger railroad lost $3.4 billion last year ing more than 30 million Amtrak customers for each of the despite receiving $16 billion in subsidies—more public funding in past eight years. Amtrak operates more than 300 trains daily, a single year than Amtrak has received in the past decade. connecting more than 500 destinations in 46 states, the Dis- trict of Columbia and three Canadian Provinces, and reaches When Amtrak acquired the Northeast Corridor (NEC) from 400 additional destinations via connecting bus routes. Book its private owner, the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad, reve- travel, check train status, access your eTicket and more nues covered less than half of its operating costs. (cont’d) through the Amtrak app. Learn more at Amtrak.com. PAGE 3: ALL ABOARD INDIANA JANUARY 2019 (“Amtrak a “Failure”? Hardly…” continued from page 2) Last We couldn’t agree more. year, the NEC generated a $526 million operating surplus for reinvestment in NEC assets. Railway Age Editor’s Note: This is the first time since former Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson was appointed Amtrak President The “privatization” schemes advocated in the op eds – giving and CEO that Amtrak has responded with something to contrib- subsidies to private operators to take over select Amtrak ser- ute—of its own accord (as is the case here), or if asked—to Railway vices, and soliciting bids for turning NEC infrastructure over to Age commentaries or requests to participate in feature stories. Both a private company—have been tried, in both the U.S. and in- Anderson and Gardner refused to be interviewed for Frank Wilner’s ternationally. They haven’t worked. November issue cover story. We are pleased to see that the wall of A Midwestern state’s 2015 privatization of equipment and silence—in our opinion, erected by Anderson, not Gardner— food service on an Amtrak state-supported route ended when appears to be coming down. We hope the wall is dismantled com- the private service provider sought increased subsidies after pletely. In any case, our purpose as an industry publication is to only 17 months. facilitate constructive dialogue and debate. We are glad that Am- trak has finally decided to participate. Let’s keep the dialogue go- Two Congressionally-mandated DOT solicitations for ing. — William C. Vantuono development of high-speed services on the NEC, and a FAST Act-required solicitation that offered large subsidies to enti- All Aboard Indiana Editor’s Note: This article can also be found ties willing to take over Amtrak long-distance routes, did not online here. (This article courtesy of the author and Railway Age) attract a single private sector proposal. Great Britain embraced both privatization approaches advocated by the op-eds. It turned its rail infrastructure over to a URPA Responds to Stephen newly formed private entity, but without the $40 billion gov- Gardner ernment “loan” that proponents of the similar AIRNet-21 pro- Written by Andrew Selden, January 4, 2019 posal for the NEC are seeking. It also contracted-out passen- If Amtrak honestly accounted for all the costs of generating ger train operations to multiple operators. The infrastructure its revenues, and included the vast infrastructure costs of the company quickly became insolvent, triggering renationaliza- NEC, its losses and “cost recovery” would have been far worse tion and massive expenditures to repair unsafe tracks—a sce- than Gardner’s assertion. nario no responsible person would want to risk for the NEC.

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