Metra buys railroad commuter service on bids put out to the Class Ones. Of course you would have to admit that Amtrak is a essentioal goverment service and as such cant make money. Congress thru USDOT would put out a contract and Class Ones and anyone else would bid on the Contract. If the line actualy make money then the company would get to keep it.
Amtrak is a Government-owned corporation and is for-profit.
They could put out a bid, but I don’t see and Class-1 lining up to take it. Why would they? If there was money to be made hauling passengers, Amtrak would have never been formed.
But a lot has changed over the last 40+ years. They would get paid a subsidy to run the trains – only be bidding to show the best combination of better service and lower subsidy. And if they could create a profit, it would be theirs. If anyone could possibly do so, it would be the current “host” railroads.
I think a lot of people are watching the Hoosier State operation as a possible model for change.
Short distance is different. Looses economies of scale.
I have to question this, Drago. I think the biggest thing that has changed over 45 years is that the Class Ones are now two generations removed from their history and institutional knowledge of running passenger trains. By now, I don’t see them having a leg up on anybody else.
The missing part of your proposal of course is Metra usually provides and maintains the tracks and for new service…eventually when frequencies rise enough makes an offer to buy the tracks. The Metra model has actually improved freight railroad infrastructure in and around Chicago. Further, their lease terms on equipment is probably attractive as well as I can think of no other reason why BNSF continues to hold ownership in commutter rail cars in Chicago.
So it goes well beyond just placing a bid out there.
If there wasn’t money to be made in passenger train service how was the privately run and operated Auto-Train formed during the era of Amtrak? Was it that Wall Street was just stupid or duped?
They got their equipment for a steal and ran the wheels off it. A big part of the reason they went belly-up was they weren’t generating enough cash to fund equipment capital costs.
You could bid out service, or even parts of service by function.
Suppose you bid out the food service and sleeper service. You could fashion the deal so that the contractor gets a flat, or per person subsidy but gets to keep all the revenue. Company requiring the least subsidy wins the bid.
Profit motive should provide better service and lower overall cost.
Metra has purchase-of-service agreements with BNSF and UP for service on their lines. Metra specifies service and schedule and pays the carriers to provide that service. The contracts are carryovers from when the RTA first came into existence and moved from paying a subsidy to cover losses to such a contract.
The remainder of Metra’s services are directly operated by Metra.
The original Auto-Train went bankrupt for multiple reasons.
Unless the Hoosier State can run on a more competitive schedule, it will not matter who runs it, private contractor or Amtrak.
Let’s go ride it, then… oh wait…
Sure there may be some smaller/specialized corridors that can make money, but as a whole, there isn’t much money to be made in hauling around the general public. doesn’t mean I’m against passenger trains, on the contrary, I think we need more, but it should be provided as a service. I do not subscribe to the theory that something must be profitable to be successful.
And I’ve seen some of the major operating differences between passenger railraods and freight railroads. I do not think the two models are compatible anymore.
+1
Agree!
We should always strive for “better” and there may be ways to do it without hanging the whole balance sheet on the operator.
Fred –
I believe a few other things have changed as well:
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US population – nearly 50% (so even if only a small precentage of people want to travel by train, and that percentage has not changed, it is still a larger base).
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Both highway and air travel have become increasingly uncomfortable and crowded, rather than the modern and “in” forms of transportation that they were 40-45 years ago, making reliable rail an increasingly more interesting alternative (again!).
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Today there appears to be a greater appreciation to using rail for passenger transportation, and where frequent and reliable service has been made available, it has been successful. Witness the services in California, which now have frequencies exceeding anything before (even better than in the “Golden Age”, whenever that was).
Yes, I know – this is corridor service, a differrent animal. But I posit that of course there is limited patronage for Long Distance s
Since most LD trains are running at far less than capacity now, two or three per day would show even lower occupancy rates. The operational expenses above the rails exceed revenue by ~20 cents per passenger mile.
I agree with all these talking points in favor of a passenger-rail renaissance. (And would add to the list of successes the super-corridor-sized Eugene, Ore. to Seattle service.) It will no doubt be spotty, depending on local circumstances such as rail capacity as well as population density. I do believe its day is coming.
I’m lucky enough to live in a part of the country in which Interstate driving is, for the most part, a pleasure rather than a headache. As with other Americans, when I go, it’s usually by car. For that ninth and 10th trip, it’s by train or not at all, even though I have to drive 100 miles to board.
An exception last month, for a special family event – my first flight since a funeral in 2001, just before 9-11 – reminded me of the reason for the rule. Really: For sheer discomfort, for insult added to injury, for a glimpse into our collectivist future – I give you the modern airline flight.
No more exceptions to the rule. (There’s nobody left to die whose funeral isn’t within driving distance.)
Super-corridor? Eugene-Seattle is the ideal size for a rail corridor: <300 miles, intermediate traffic centers, congested Interstate. That is why it is working. But it would be much better if the speed could be increased. Now it takes 6:40 to cover 283 miles, $55. One can fly, hassle-free from Mahlon in 1 hour, or take a bus for $29, 5:50.