Passenger Trains > Legislative Initiative Re: Amtrak' PV's & special trains

Political Leverage

Write Your Federal Representatives
Guidelines from Ross Capon, AAPRCO Washington Representative

Make your voice heard. Write your U.S. Senators and Representative in opposition to Amtrak's new policy restricting PV moves and special trains. A sample letter is provided below which you may edit to reflect your desired emphasis and writing style.

The most effective way to send a message to your Representative or Senator is electronically. You can do this by visiting https://www.congress.gov/ and clicking on "Members" at upper right. Then select the Representative or Senator you wish to contact. This will take you to a link to the Member's website, where you can send an electronic message.

If you prefer to send a letter through the U.S. Postal Service, we strongly advise you to mail it to a district or state office. Letters sent to Capitol Hill experience considerable delay and often damaged by security inspections.

Underlining = only for legislators who have been supporters of Amtrak

Italics = for legislators who have not been outstanding supporters of Amtrak but who might be helpful in dealing with the issue of Amtrak turning away good money and driving up its subsidy needs

Please select just one or two of the bulleted examples of special train runs, or substitute another example that you are familiar with (or are running yourself!).

SAMPLE MESSAGE

The Honorable [Name]

Dear Senator or Representative:

(A) Thank you for your strong support over many years of public transportation, in general, and Amtrak, in particular.

(B) Thank you for [insert anything on any subject where the legislator has said or done something you agree with]

Amtrak recently has done-or is in the process of doing-three things which do not make business sense and which I strongly oppose. Please contact Amtrak's CEO Richard Anderson and its board members and urge them to reconsider.

(1) Amtrak on March 28th announced it will no longer operate charter services or special trains, with only "a few narrow exceptions." I believe this disregards Section 216 of the 2008 PRIIA law which states: "Amtrak is encouraged to increase the operation of special trains funded by, or in partnership with, private sector operators through competitive contracting to minimize the need for Federal subsidies." [PRIIA Section 216, 122 STAT. 4907 at 4930 (2008)]

Some examples of recent Amtrak move denials, as well as trips that are no longer possible under this new policy include the following.
Amtrak responded to a recent request for a Chicago-Galesburg round-trip using private cars and Amtrak locomotives by charging four times the rate it charged for a similar trip a year ago. The operator declined.
Example of a trip that presumably would not happen under the new policy: Amtrak was paid $98,000 in connection with a one-time, one-way special move from Seattle to Whitefish, Montana, on January 27. This included $52,000 for the charter itself, $31,000 for Amtrak to haul the operator's cars Minneapolis-Seattle and return, and $15,000 to purchase space on-board the Empire Builder for the operator's personnel. Moreover, this gave Amtrak visibility to influential people - a group of corporate executives en route to a retreat, including representatives from Amazon and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Example of a trip Amtrak has canceled: The Friends of the 261 planned and sold tickets for a June 9-10 Minneapolis-Duluth steam excursion to raise funds for the installation of the Positive Train Control (PTC) safety system on Milwaukee Road steam locomotive No. 261. Host railroad BNSF pledged to support the trip by donating its related overhead expenses to the cause. PTC vendor Wabtec was to have representatives and a PTC screen on board the train to demonstrate to the public how PTC works. (Note that Amtrak's March 28 announcement was just over two months before the trip.)
Amtrak has canceled a 51-year-old tradition - the New River trains between Huntington and Hinton, West Virginia. These are four round-trips each October which bring an average of 4,800 people a year to a state devastated by the coal industry's decline. "The New River Train is one of the largest and most popular single events in Huntington," said Tyson Compton, President of the Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau. The economic impact to the area is around $2.2 million. Also gone are shorter trips, including some already sold that involve taking students to Washington, DC, to learn how their government works. This is great advertising, cultivating the next generation of Amtrak travelers.
(2) Amtrak is planning to significantly reduce the number of intermediate points where individual private cars can be switched on and off regular Amtrak trains. A policy announcement is expected soon, but the policy has already been implemented in many specific situations, including for example, the elimination of handling cars at Huntington, West Virginia, after April 30 and turning down annual, longstanding single Chicago-Cleveland and Chicago-Ann Arbor round-trips.

(3) Amtrak's March 28th announcement said most "one-time trips and charters are immediately discontinued." The startling speed with which these major decisions are being implemented is creating profound difficulties for operators and those to whom they have already sold tickets. This creates bad will towards Amtrak, tarnishing its brand. Operators have been selling tickets to the public for many of these trips and, if Amtrak does not relent, will be forced to issue refunds. There are parallel issues with the drastic reduction of individual private car moves, many of which involve selling space to paying customers. (Many car owners are not wealthy and rely on this revenue.) People in some cases have planned to travel long distances to reach the private-car or special-train origin point; they have sunk costs some of which cannot be recovered.

Not only does Amtrak make money on private cars and special trains, these experiences introduce many people to rail travel -- people who later become paying customers on regular Amtrak trains. Some of these people are influential and helpful to Amtrak in its periodic struggles for funding.

Thank you for contacting Amtrak and urging management to rethink these misguided policies.

What I would ask for in legislation to take away any monopoly rights Amtrak has in operating passenger train service.

That might set the stage for an improved situation for running special trains.

The kicker there is any other operator, other than the host RR itself, assuming it can spend a fortune on all the insurance, would have to pay track charges at market rate, not just Amtrak's cheap incremental rate. And that is assuming the host RR is even willing to be open-access, which is a slippery slope.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The kicker there is any other operator, other than
> the host RR itself, assuming it can spend a
> fortune on all the insurance, would have to pay
> track charges at market rate, not just Amtrak's
> cheap incremental rate. And that is assuming the
> host RR is even willing to be open-access, which
> is a slippery slope.

You might be right, then again, we might find out otherwise or parties might come up with an innovative solution.

We never will know as long as we have the restriction.

Jack

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> joemvcnj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The kicker there is any other operator, other
> than
> > the host RR itself, assuming it can spend a
> > fortune on all the insurance, would have to pay
> > track charges at market rate, not just Amtrak's
> > cheap incremental rate. And that is assuming
> the
> > host RR is even willing to be open-access,
> which
> > is a slippery slope.
>
> You might be right, then again, we might find out
> otherwise or parties might come up with an
> innovative solution.
>
> We never will know as long as we have the
> restriction.
>
> Jack

The best defense is an offense! I just don't understand how the state-owned former federal-owner Alaska Railroad can be a top rated operation, when Amtrak has its head up its caboose.

This draft letter's text is a really positive step such as I was hoping for, and was done in the right way by the right people: from an organization that has standing and a business relationship with Amtrak on this issue; was well-written and expressed professionally; and most of all was fact-based and presented in the spirit of a proper concern for a congressperson to address.

Thank you to AAPRCO for taking the time and making the effort to share this with us and to guide our own action and responses. This draft will form the base for my own letters to members of the Michigan congressional delegation, and is much appreciated.

MC
Muskegon, Michigan

In the original post is a statement that the 261 excursion scheduled for June 9 - 10 has been cancelled. However, the Friends of the 261 website shows no mention of the excursion being cancelled. Instead, clicking on the ticket sales link shows all classes of tickets being sold out.

Is the excursion cancelled or are ticket sales on hold pending further resolution with Amtrak?

Amen, AWS4449.

Posted from Android

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Is the excursion cancelled or are ticket sales on
> hold pending further resolution with Amtrak?

It's not yet cancelled, but the organizers have asked passengers to give them 7-10 days to work out a resolution.

nathansixchime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RuleG Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Is the excursion cancelled or are ticket sales
> on
> > hold pending further resolution with Amtrak?
>
> It's not yet cancelled, but the organizers have
> asked passengers to give them 7-10 days to work
> out a resolution.

Thank you for your reply.

We received the 7 to 10 day potential cancellation notice regarding 261 to Duluth on Thursday 3/29; and nothing since. I'm hopeful that no news is good news.

Some additional thoughts on this issue from a good friend of mine:


One additional avenue that may be worthy of exploring with legislators is that Amtrak has a role as a provider of "special trains" in the event of natural disasters or emergencies. To provide this capability requires that Amtrak maintain an in-house planning, managerial and operational capability to operate special trains on short notice.

In the past Amtrak has operated special trains to support Christmas leave for military trainees at Fort Jackson, SC, and Fort Leonard Wood, MO. In recent years, Amtrak has been approached to support unit training being conducted at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA, but with no movements ever taking place.

Twenty five or so years ago as a military planner I attended a FEMA conference on domestic emergency response. Amtrak planners were also in attendance and had with them engineering plans for a kit that would provide ambulatory capability to a standard coach. This conference was the last I ever heard of this potential Amtrak capability.

Amtrak operating special trains with long planning lead times will help maintain a managerial capability that will be totally lost if this service is discontinued. Congress should be encouraged to add to Amtrak's mission statement wording to the effect that it "possess the capability to provide 'special train' movements to support natural disaster mitigation / recovery and military movement requirements." Such a statement would go a long way in elevating special train operations from Amtrak's current view that this service is little more than a railfan amusement to a legitimate public need. AAPRCO could assist Amtrak with a quick response capability by identifying member cars that could be made available for capacity augmentation under emergency conditions.