On the All Aboard website they is rumor going around that USPS is upset at not having Amtrak handling any Mail Contracts and are Looking into Leasing New Hep-Equipped Boxcars to put in front of Passenger Cars again. D.C. and New York to Chicago and Chicago to LA. They my be willing to offer the leasing Plus $30 Million Dollar in Contracts the First Year. Chance to restart Amtrak Mail Business. [?][:D]
30 million is 1.5% of the money Amtrak needs, but it is a step in the right direction.
With the on time performance required by any USPS A/track may wind up paying more to the USPS then the USPS gives them in income. [;)]
Amtrak, through no fault of its own, would fail miserably on some segments.
Question: Hey! Where can you find a fast Amtrak Express in the west?
Answer: Crawling behind a Union Pacific freight train!
I agree with you 100%.
Totally agree since A/track does not dispatch there own trains except in the NE corridor. [8D]
…The prospect sound incouraging…and makes sense if it would be a reality. It is too bad this kind of arrangement couldn’t have been worked out years ago and kill two birds with one transportation mode…Train. But guess that would have made too much sense.
Priority of some kind from the mail contract surely could have dispached these trains through a bit better. I suppose there might have been several common sense ways to make our rail passenger transportation work over the years but politics always got in the way…and with one party controlling all three aspects of government now it’s obvious nothing like that was going to be discussed or even tried…
I use to deal with USPS in Secaucus NJ. Right across the street from the NS Croxton intermodal terminal now. The USPS told me they have very strict time constraints written into their contracts with the RRs + a non performance penalty for being late. l would guess A/trak would pay more in penalties to USPS for being late then they will earn for hauling the traffic in the 1st place.[:p]
This could bring back Amtrak Train 40 & 41 from the grave again to haul mail again? from New York to Chicago, This time put it on the Capitol Route from Pittsburgh to Chicago not the CSX again that way 40 & 41 will be on time alot more. Also the Southwest Chief Mail from Chicago to LA BNSF Keep the Chief on time everyday of week. This plan will work. It will not work if it is on UP Railroad.[8D]
Who would operate the trains after they left the NE corridor? NS or CSX that is where the problem will arise? The quickest route say from Dallas/Houston to LAX is via UPRR as they have the shortest mileage by far. [:p]
Here is how to get UP to run the trains OT. When carrying Federal Shipments, either people or mail, any lateness due to the UP would be paid for by the UP, not AMTK. This would be done by a change in operating contract and the Feds can force the issue. In the LA basin, the commuter and AMTK runs are OT or else. The local taxing and permit authorities hold the “or else” Sword of Damaclese over the UP.
Amtrak does have performance incentives in place. Speaking of 2003 results for BNSF, Matt Rose said they were worth a penny a share on the profits. On wall street those pennies count.
It could be said that USPS buys the cheapest transportation money can buy. That’s OK because that is their job, but every time I happen to see the truck that is hauling the mail to and from our local post office, it seems to be a different owner. More to the point, the tractors always look like they have seen way too many days on the road. USPS is probably not happy when a carrier decides that the rates have been beaten down so far that the cost of the paper used to submit a bid wipes out any profit potential. Not because the carrier is not making any money, but rather that means the USPS has lost another sucker who had provided service of next to nothing.
Here is a tidbit. When I was in charge of steamship line equipment we use to give it to USPS so they could use it instead of trailers. We thought if we paid a per container fee to USPS they would use more of them as a incentive. USPS told us thank you very much buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut we are NOT allowed by law (?) to accept payment to use the containers. So they continued to use them without receiving a fee from the steamship line for theeir use. [:p]
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Originally posted by jeaton
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My guess is that as aggresive as they may be about getting cheap transportation, the law was probably required to keep them from seeing if they could get the carriers to pay to haul the mail.
Well they could have billed the SS line so it was all on the up & up. I did not want to PO them off so I never asked to see a copy of the law. At the time my thought was it was going to be a to cumbersome for them to set up the procedure to do the billing. [:o)]
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Originally posted by jeaton
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I take it NO ONE READ WHY THE MAIL was killed? Jeez, you people are amazing. AMtrak flat out stated that they were LOSING money hauling it.
I did which is why I said the A/trak maybe paying more in delay fines then they are getting in revenue. [:D]
Well, Amtrak loses money hauling passengers too for that matter. The issue was not whether or not the were losing money, but a matter of whether or not that loss of money provided a unique, worthwhile public service. Since nearly all of the mail that Amtrak hauled was second and third class bulk mail, they figured that there was no point in justifying the loss of money of on such service - it would not hurt the public good.