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Amtrak: Northeast Corridor faces investment crisis
1). “Boardman says, the Northeast Corridor today depends on major components built from 1900 to 1930, particularly the electrical system and the bridges, that need to be replaced, and many segments are operating at or near maximum capacity.” The electrical system was built after 1930, not by much, but it was after 1930. I would think anyone with any familiarity with the NEC would know the electrical system was built during the depression with some help from the government. 2). Getting the states to kick in will be hard, getting cities to kick in I think will be impossible, getting private financing, I think is a pipe dream unless he’s just talking about loans, and the last thing Amtrak needs is more debt, and you don’t go into debt for routine maintenance. Getting it back into the same shape it was in a few decades ago is, unfortunately, routine maintenance.
I know this is a broken record, but perhaps Mr. Selden needs to hear it again. Those roads and airways that he says can accommodate the traffic have all received state and federal funding.
Yes, Mr. Bates - all forms of transportation receive federal and state funding. However, on a passenger mile basis, passenger rail receives about 20 times the funding of road and air travel.
Gee, where’s the Guse? What, no ranting today?
Inestment equals tax dollars.What else is there to conclude?
Mr. Seldon: Where do you get your misinformation, from Jeffery Guse? You are a total jackass. Both air and highway get bucoo subsidies many times over Amtrak. I suppose you would suggest that NEC riders take Bolt Bus or Mega Bus. Sorry pal but busses SUCK.
Mr. Turon, if the ARRA investment had not been spread around the country, it wouldn’t have been approved by Congress - that’s political reality. I agree the NEC would have benefited from $9B, but only if the rest of the country had received a proportionately larger share, too. Let’s work on electing a functional congress - one made up of people who understand statesmanship, not just politics.
Mr. Blackwood: Hunter Harrison did not build up CN by disinvestment. I’d love to hear what he things about the NEC!
This is hilarious. Joe Boardman should be a stand-up comic.
Amtrak’s services in the NEC have a load factor of less than 50% overall, and outside the commuter territory of PHL-NYP-NHV the load factor is under 30%. They can’t give away two-thirds of their non-commuter NEC inventory, so they are hardly “saturated.” In fact, a load factor this low proves conclusively that Amtrak is already heavily OVER-invested in the NEC.
And the numbers they carry now, again outside the local markets PHL-NYP-NHV have, according to US BTS data, a market share of less than 2%, so their social utility is trivial at best. EVERY single NEC passenger on today’s trains, excepting again only the PHL-NYP-NHV local traffic, could EASILY be accomodated in existing roadway and air capacity in the NEC.
So Boardman’s claim that Amtrak needs to be rebuilt in the NEC are risible.
It seems Amtrak has an infrastructure routine maintenance crisis in the NEC every ten years. It’s time Amtrak looked hard at the facts and assumptions that drive how it operates the NEC. Canadian Pacific’s Hunter Harrison is right in saying you maximize the use of your current assets before spending money on more assets.
these a holes have hundereds of bridges that need to be replaced first! who the heck are they lying to! invest in what you have you idiots before it fazlls apart which it already is. over 140 bridges in pa alone need to be replaced that where built in the 1920 s and are rusting away with falling bolts , rusting suppoprt beams and plates . the lies never end with amcrap for Gods sake!
Perhaps it’s time for Amtrak to transfer the NEC (less public stations and train maintance facilities) to a neutral railroad authority which would have ownership, maintenance, and traffic control responsibilities. Upside is Amtrak would be relieved of an asset that absorbs a lot of its attention and funding (understandable so) at the expense of its other operations. Downside is Amtrak becomes a tenant like MTA, NJT, SEPTA, MARC, etc. in a very big market. John Kneiling once told us that in the beginning the “rail road” was to be like a toll road or canal. The customers would bring their own trains. Technology of the day wasn’t up to the task, but it is now.
To the republican house members and senators who represent along the NEC. You have constituants who take Amtrak trains too. By refusing to properly fund Amtrak, you’re hurting the very people that you represent.
As a Texas tax payer, I would be glad to help out the NEC after we get some real service down here. One train three times a week through Houston, the states largest city, is not service. Otherwise you better start working on those states the NEC serves because I could care less about it.
It would appear that the general public does not understand the efficiency of the steel wheel on the steel rail. Furthermore, railroads are the only transportation companies (freight railroads) making money. I agree with Charles Gasper about educating the general public who will educate the politicians.
If trains are running full, the first place to look for increased revenue is in ticket prices. If trains are not full, we need to ask what we can do to make them full. Lowering fares is one thing. Making the trains more attractive (faster, more comfortable, more convenient timing, etc.) is another. To the extent that cars are taken off the road when someone makes a train trip, I think it is reasonable for public funding to be balanced between road and rail funding. That is: to the extent that your car trip is publicly funded by the highway trust fund, so could your train trip be similarly funded in part by a public fund. Amtrak could get a certain amount of funding based on passenger miles.
The Obama Administration missed a big opportunity with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the NEC should have gotten $10 billion, they need was very much there, much of the work on tunnels, bridges, track, and catenary was clearly documented in Amtrak studies.
Now its 2013 and we have an utterly dysfunctional Congress with little hope of getting anything done, if that money had been earmarked in 2009 we could be well on the way to rebuilding the NEC, starting with upgrading the catenary NYC-Wash for 160-mph service, and adding more mainline track for capacity. Some big tunnel and bridge work would be underway.
Yes, thanks to the ARRA and other federal funding some of the needed work is now underway, but it could have been some much more.
The British government last decade spent £10 billion on the West Coast Mainline while Virgin Trains replaced the old rolling-stock with new tilting train-sets, introduced a new faster and more frequent schedule; this effort resulting in the ridership doubling to 30-million in a decade.
Why not here in America? If you want to invest in “high-speed rail”, Amtrak and NEC should have been the first stop.
toronto, canada. The N.E.C and the Acella express trains are a wonderful way to travel Washington ,N.Y.-Boston…But like any high speed line they must be maintained…sad to say upkeep has not had the funding it needs and acella is really not any faster than the Metroliners of years ago. What is going to fail next on the N.E.C?..lets hope funding can be found.
Mr. Boardman is right about about placing priority on Northeast Corridor Trains. This always offered a connection to important Metropolitan Cities ever since the Pennsy Electrified back in the 1930’s. Unfortunately, maintaining such a wonderful system demands commitment to maintain, repair and replace capital equipment. Out here in California we need high-speed rail between San Diego and Los Angeles (less than 200-mailes). Who wants to drive to Modest to experience high speed to Merced!? I been trying to sell fast-Metro trains for years to friends. Somehow we are missing the boat in educating the general population (who should then educate our politicians). Mr. Boardman is fighting an uphill battle - infrastructure (read interstate commerce) is as important as defense (which will go nowhere without transportation!)