Passenger Trains > Dead Nation Walking

James Howard Kunstler in his Clusterf**k Nation blog looks at the recent Amtrak wreck in Philadephia, Amtrak trains in his home state of New York and our general lack on long term planning in his latest Blog entry "Dead Nation Walking".

Dead Nation Walking

In his blog post he talks about the recent Amtrak wreck -Many people seem to think that America has lost its sense of purpose. They overlook the obvious: that we are striving to become the Bulgaria of the western hemisphere. At least we already have enough vampires to qualify.You don’t have to seek further than the USA’s sub-soviet-quality passenger railroad system, which produced the spectacular Philadelphia derailment last week that killed eight people and injured dozens more. Six days later, we’re still waiting for some explanation as to why the train was going 100 miles-per-hour on a historically dangerous curve within the city limits."The otherwise excellent David Stockman posted a misguided blog last week that contained all the boilerplate arguments denouncing passenger rail: that it’s addicted to government subsidies and that a “free market” would put it out of its misery because Americans prefer to drive and fly from one place to another."

And then he looks at trains in his home state of New York -"One reason Americans prefer to drive — say, from Albany, NY, to Boston — is that there is only one train a day, it never leaves on time or arrives on time, and it takes twice as long as a car trip for no reason that makes any sense. Of course, this is exactly the kind of journey ( slightly less than 200 miles) that doesn’t make sense to fly, either, given all the dreary business of getting to-and-from the airports, not to mention the expense of a short-hop plane ticket.I take the popular (and gorgeous!) Hudson River Amtrak train between Albany and New York several times a year because bringing a car into Manhattan is an enormous pain in the ass. This train may have the highest ridership in the country, but it’s still a Third World experience. The heat or the AC is often out of whack, you can’t buy so much as a bottle of water on the train, the windows are gunked-over, and the seats are often broken. They put wifi on trains a couple of years ago but it cuts out every ten minutes."JHK does get one thing wrong. In his post he claims Amtrak sold the line between Albany and Schenectady to CSXT and that CSXT removed the second track. "Some of the decisions made over our rail system are so dumb you wonder how the executives on board ever got their jobs. For instance the train between New York City and Chicago never runs on time for the simple reason that Amtrak sold the right-of-way to the CSX freight line. CSX then tore up the second track because there was an antiquated state real estate tax on railroad tracks. As a result, freight trains have priority on the single track and the passenger trains have to pull over on sidings every time a freight needs to go by. Earth calling the New York state legislature. Rescind the stupid tax."

It was Penn Central IIRC that removed the second track. New York State did grant CSXT a tax break to allow the return of the second track.

In closing JHK writes -

"America is going to need trains more than it thinks right now, despite what the “free market” says. The condition of our trains is symptomatic of the shape of the nation. The really sad part is we missed the window of opportunity to build a high-speed system. Capital will soon be too scarce for that. But we still have a conventional network that not so many decades ago was the envy of the world, and we know exactly how to fix it. We just don’t want to. No will left. Apparently we’d rather just turn into the walking dead."

Currenty there are 326 responses to "Dead Nation Walking".

Haven't had a chance to plow through all 326 responses yet, but hopefully someone has corrected him on the CSXT issue.

Although New York City gets its share of knocks on TrainOrders, many of its residents are very aware of, and users of, Amtrak. Not just the NEC to DC, but the Empire Route and Ethan etc. Or the Cannonball. These trains often sell out on Friday afternoons and Sunday nights / Monday mornings.  And provide an easy getaway to country houses, etc.

The state put up a bundle of its own money to expand service, buy sections of the railroad, and lay additional track.

When I meet new people in the city, the conversation often turns to trains. It's amazing how many New Yorkers know about the trains, where they go, and have recently been on one or more.

"Amtrak sold the right of way to CSX"? Really?

Jishnu Wrote:
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> "Amtrak sold the right of way to CSX"? Really?

James Howard Kunstler has been an outspoken critic from the Left for years. He's been a popular lecturer on the college circuit, and extremely enjoyable. I've heard him several times, and I've enjoyed his books. Although I agree with very little of his position, he's a great presenter.

Facts don't necessarily get in the way of "the big picture"

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Although I agree with very
> little of his position, he's a great presenter.
>
> Facts don't necessarily get in the way of "the big
> picture"

Don't forget the scene in Animal House when John Belushi says "when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor".  His fellow frat member asks "Germans?"  The response fits here" "Forget it - he's on a roll".

What people forget is that our rail network is optimized for freight and is hands down the best rail freight system in the world.  The much vaunted European rail system is just a basket case when it comes to freight.  Short trains that have to deal with a constant flow of short passenger runs, light axle loadings and highly restrictive loading guages. Why are European roadways clogged with truck traffic? Poor rail freight. Honestly I would rather have clear roads and limited passenger rail than trucks everywhere and more trains.

 

mbrotzman Wrote:
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> What people forget is that our rail network is
> optimized for freight and is hands down the best
> rail freight system in the world.  The much
> vaunted European rail system is just a basket case
> when it comes to freight.  Short trains that have
> to deal with a constant flow of short passenger
> runs, light axle loadings and highly restrictive
> loading guages. Why are European roadways clogged
> with truck traffic? Poor rail freight. Honestly I
> would rather have clear roads and limited
> passenger rail than trucks everywhere and more
> trains.

Yet strangely enough we used to be able to do BOTH ..... move a large amount of freight and passengers .....

1952 Official Guide

"But we still have a conventional network that not so many decades ago was the envy of the world, and we know exactly how to fix it. We just don’t want to. No will left. Apparently we’d rather just turn into the walking dead."


Capacity, capacity capacity ......

This guy has it entirely right. Sail on, sailor!

Tor in Eugene

We did used to do both quite well...up until a large majority of people decided they'd rather fly and/or drive than take the train.  Yes, that led to the government subsidizing both.  And yes, they COULD get more people on trains with enough more subsidies there to give us more frequent and timely service.  But why?  As much as I like trains, I don't see any good reason that the government should be funding redundancy.

And with or without subsidy, it's a lot cheaper to add airline capacity than railroad, when you can just fly over geographical obstacles than build tracks through them.

I hear a lot on here about how third-world America's passenger rail network is...but the fact that we've moved beyond that model doesn't really warrant the third-world comparisons.  We can get from one place to the other here quite easily.
>
> Yet strangely enough we used to be able to do BOTH
> ..... move a large amount of freight and
> passengers .....
 

The notion that Amtrak frequently has to wait for freight trains on the track through Schenectady and Albany is laughable, too. The number of freight moves on the busiest part of Hoffmans-CP 125 could probably still be counted on one hand.

I am amazed at the number of Canadian trucks on the NYS Thruway between Suffern and Kingston (where I often exit). Dozens of them, probably hundreds in the 30-35 mile stretch. Night, day, weekend, doesn't matter.  It's business which should be on the rails, but never will be.

Seven hour trip from Montreal to the NJ suburbs, including a rest stop. By rail, that would be a two day trip on CP and CSX and intermodal the last 20 miles.  If your cargo is valuable, it goes by truck for the under 400 mile trip.

mbrotzman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What people forget is that our rail network is
> optimized for freight and is hands down the best
> rail freight system in the world.  The much
> vaunted European rail system is just a basket case
> when it comes to freight.  Short trains that have
> to deal with a constant flow of short passenger
> runs, light axle loadings and highly restrictive
> loading guages. Why are European roadways clogged
> with truck traffic? Poor rail freight. Honestly I
> would rather have clear roads and limited
> passenger rail than trucks everywhere and more
> trains.
>
>  

Compared to the not too distant past, there seem to be trucks everywhere now on the national highway system...and it is especially worse as one gets closer to any metro area.  Of course, trucks are important to the economy, no one is disputing that, but they also do, by far, the most damage to the highway system.  Not to mention one has to wonder about the capabilities of the some of the drivers these days....not all mind you, just some.