While doing some research, I came across this proposal submitted to the House Subcommittee on Railroads by Railway Service Corporation. It is rather long, so I’ll just provide a link:
http://www.house.gov/transportation/rail/04-11-02/spencer.html
For all of you with much more knowledge about how government operates, I ask: was this company way off base, or did they have some good ideas?
They are definately not off base! Why not try going to a contract operator for Amtrak. They couldn’t do any worse than Amtrak is doing things now!
…I think by reading over the proposal stated to the House Subcommittee on Railroads…the idea did sound quite good. Believe any railfan would be well pleased if we could develope a system such as mentioned to that Subcommittee.
I’m a bit weak when I read of the proposal of financing with State and Local monies to the tune of 12.5 BILLION…!! Unless I understood that incorrectly…They also proposed express freight carrying, and I wonder how they could manage to do that over the host railroads ROW. Wouldn’t that be moving in on their business and would not be something they would want to give up.
The AutoTrain part sounds good…Always believed more of that could be marketed.
The overall proposal sure beats much of what we’ve heard kicked around in trying to reform Amtrak. Like the addition of new and expanded routes and frequencies of trains…But the matter of financing sure is a question mark in my mind. The figure of 12.5 billion sure would go a long way to provide the proper equipment, etc. needed to build a credible system though.
Let’s hear some more comments…
I’ll read the article when time permits, so I’m going by the initial respones by PBenham and Modelcar.
Yes, any private company that takes over the responsibility of passenger rail operations should be able to supplement their bottom line any way they seem fit, and being able to carry time sensitive freight does in theory fit into the operational dynamics of modern day passenger train ideals.
The Autotrain idea should have been implemented on ALL Amtrak routes (maybe even on the NEC), because the car ferry business is one market as yet untapped nationally.
The one thing not clear yet is if this would be one company taking over all passenger train services now supplied by Amtrak, or if this company would just act as a managing entity for multiple subcontracted rail passenger service providers. Either way, Amtrak’s current right of passage over the Class I network must be perserved and be able to grant that right of passage to any company willing to provide reasonable passenger service. Thus, Amtrak the oversight agency would remain, but privateers would conduct actual operations.
Isn’t Amtrak California seperate from Amtrak ?? Davebr
Amtrak Money Pit is NEC needs 20 to 30 Billions Dollars to get it into A-Shape Again. They should privatize NEC Now, leave the rest of Amtrak alone, Plus they Need 300 to 350 New Coaches for NEC in 2007 or 2008.[2c]
LD Trains do have Capital Needs as well Locomotives, Stations, Passengers Cars that all need to have work on.
maybe we should sell it to the French?[:D]
privtization will not work it was tried in england and it turned out to be a disaster, traons ran late broken equipment and bad rail but now they are back to what it was and they now have a sound system.if it happens here there is the question about the unionizes workers if it is privatized and these people are displaced by non union workers there is a provision that the unionized worker are protected for five years.
Did anybody just happen to notice that the plan called for government support of $12.5 billion (12 Billion 500 Million and no/100 Dollars) ANNUALLY? Talk about DOA. If the federal and state governments were to come up with that kind of money, there wouldn’t be any need to reorganize or reform.
Privatize? Sounds like the plan contained a awful lot of public.
…Yes, the 12.5 BILLION dollars is the part I’m confused on…That would solve almost any problem. And it kinda indicates it would be forthcoming from Local and State governments…??? I like most of the plan as stated but can someone please explain the financing a bit better…
If the National Railroad Passenger Corporation could be successfully privatized, which I assume to mean getting passenger service off of government subsidy, why did it come into existence back in 1971, anyway?
Amtrk being privately operated will not work. If this were to happen, no long distance service would be provided. Only short haul regions. The only private operators would be the frt rrs themselves and this will not happen. Psgr rail does not make money, if it did then the frt guys would never have got out of the business 35 yrs ago.
Passenger travel did not work when it was in the hands of the major carriers[ except in a few outstanding cases, where the carriers wanted it to work}, was, if I remember, was largely do to accounting practices. The infrastructure costs were unequally charged to the passenger operations, and the freight ops carried very little of the cost burden. It was this that doomed the passenger train.
Even AMTRAK in 1976 when it bought 1,000 CC SDP40’s was hedging its bet as to it being a vaible operational entity. When Paul H. Reistrup was quoted in TRAINS (October1976.p.11) " One of the boldedst strokes made by the company in its early days was to order150 new locomotives. [ IT ] did that in such a way that tere was no risk. [ IT ]
purchased a type which is convertable to freight and would be acceptable to the railroads if AMTRAK went out of business. At that time AMTRAK was not sure it was here to stay. I cite that example because much that was done during those fragile years was done that way." Amtrak President, Paul H. Reistrup, discussing the system’s 3000hp C-C SDP40F diesels in an address to the Atlanta Rotery Club on July 12,1976"
AMTRAK is still hanging on, seeming to fight for fiscal survival and living on the edge waiting for a political miracle.
Maybe if passenger operations were turned over under a mandate to facilitate a solid operational character to the freight railroads and provide a carrot and stick system to reward performance and correct deficiencies, it might be more viable.
Sam