Passenger Trains > Amtrak Inspector General supports private varnish better mgmt

TRAIN OPERATIONS: Opportunities Exist to Improve Private Railcar Management and Business PracticesListen   February 06, 2019 |  Audit ReportsIndividuals and companies use private railcars for leisure travel and to operate businesses by renting the railcars, hosting onboard events, or selling individual seats or beds. When Amtrak assumed responsibility for intercity passenger rail service in 1971, it also assumed responsibility for the movement of private railcars from its predecessors. Our audit objectives were to assess the extent to which the company is (1) identifying and billing private railcar owners for the costs associated with movements and long-term parking services and (2) effectively managing the program.We found that the company has taken recent actions to improve the management of its private railcar program, but the program is impeded by longstanding program management weaknesses including inadequate controls for cost and revenue management, a lack of standard operating procedures, and limited safety and parking guidelines.We recommended that the company identify the costs of providing movement and long-term parking services and, once identified, factor these costs into decisions on setting or adjusting prices for private railcar services. Additionally, we recommended the company monitor the program’s financial and performance reporting, finalize and implement the program’s standard operating procedures, and implement guidelines and parking permits at all short- and long-term parking facilities.

IOW, Amtrak has not been transparent with cost and revenue of such (as with everything else they do), and their accounting systems are garbage. Maybe time for the Accountant's "Comfort Letter" on the Annual Reports to cease being an entitlement. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/19 18:27 by joemvcnj.

Too late for some of us in the PV world.  Amtrak needs a gigantic enema on the upper management side.

Fire Anderson.  Fire Gardner.  Fire Stadler.  All are incompetent and unworthy of their positions.  They don't give a crap about expending a little extra effort.  

Get some real railroaders who care about customers.

-John

Sounds like corporate  bs talk for "are we charging pvt car operators enough"  Not  good sign. 
Make service worse, and raise the price.  What a great idea, IMHO

pdt Wrote:
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> Sounds like corporate  bs talk for "are we
> charging pvt car operators enough"  Not  good
> sign. 
> Make service worse, and raise the price.  What a
> great idea, IMHO

They've already done that and most PV's have either been sold to tourist railroads for dinner or day service on isolated lines, or put in storage. What's left are the expensive corporate-owned cars and one bad actor who most of us know. Those restored by families and individuals, and operated as a small business to provide moderately priced charters for us to enjoy are gone.

To say I am amazed at the Inspector General's statement is an understatement.  There are very strict perking guidelines already in effect, at least in Los Angles, where my car was parked.  There were 19 cars paying for parking there, producing well over $27,500 a month in "free money".  Amtrak did nothing but put the car in the track, and get it out for the next scheduled trip.  Today, there are but 5 cars paying the $1800 per car per month.  Part of cost control is being sure you do not run off revenue, as has happened here.
The rate for moving a car on Amtrak is now $3.90 per mile,   That price has tripled in 10 years!.  For the IG to suggest that Amtrak needs to check its cost accounting for private car is ridiculous.  Since private cars pay all their own maintenance costs, provide and indemnify Amtrak with insurance, and bear no Amtrak marketing or ticketing expense, a fair accounting system indicates that the current charges are profitable to Amtrak, even on a fully allocated cost basis.  Amtrak does not work extra switch engines to handle private cars in yards, nor do they incur any extra expenses in moving the cars on trains, save for a minor amount of fuel.
Amtrak has jacked the rates up and ran off well over two million dollars in private car revenue just in Los Angeles in the past two years.  Anyone operating a business at less than 80% of capacity would be a fool to turn away extra revenue, just as Amtrak has done. 
Amtrak is a massive, clumsy, inefficient bureaucracy, existing only to dine well at the public trough.  It is neither providing a quality service to the general public nor is it wise the use of public money.  I am saddened to see this. 

Norm.  .

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks government takeover of anything is a good idea. For the few PV's that are still family owned and run public trips, they are getting so expensive for the owners just to cover their costs much less make a profit, that the average patron will no longer be able to afford travel. Maybe that's Amtrak's goal in the long run.

Amtrak was handed $82 million more in funding for the national network to serve the public who pays their bills. With that, they go into austerity mode and Anderson is so unscrupulous to believe they now have license to run that much revenue out of the system by whatever means possible.

To be fair, Boardman and Board member Carper reduced the OIG office to a pandering joke.

Posted from Android

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks
> government takeover of anything is a good idea.
> For the few PV's that are still family owned and
> run public trips, they are getting so expensive
> for the owners just to cover their costs much less
> make a profit, that the average patron will no
> longer be able to afford travel. Maybe that's
> Amtrak's goal in the long run.

As has been pointed out to you numerous times:

• Without Amtrak, there would have been no national passenger network on which these cars could have run over the last several decades. What non-government operation would have done so in its stead?
• Unsavory decisions are made at large corporations (yes, even railroads) all the time, often resulting in money being left on the table. The public sector has no monopoly on that.

Why must you remap every issue onto your black-and-white, bizarro ideological viewpoint?

Touché:)

• Without Amtrak, there would have been no
  > national passenger network on which these cars
  > could have run over the last several decades. What
  > non-government operation would have done so in its
  > stead?
  >
• Unsavory decisions are made at large
  > corporations (yes, even railroads) all the time,
  > often resulting in money being left on the table.
  > The public sector has no monopoly on that.
  >
  > Why must you remap every issue onto your
  > black-and-white, bizarro ideological viewpoint?

If you two had any experience in dealing with Amtrak while trying to efficiently operate your own private enterprise, you would not have made the uninformed comments you did. -John

Norm's assessment above is 100% on the mark. 

-John

pennengineer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks
> > government takeover of anything is a good idea.
> > For the few PV's that are still family owned
> and
> > run public trips, they are getting so expensive
> > for the owners just to cover their costs much
> less
> > make a profit, that the average patron will no
> > longer be able to afford travel. Maybe that's
> > Amtrak's goal in the long run.
>
> As has been pointed out to you numerous times:
>
>

• Without Amtrak, there would have been no
  > national passenger network on which these cars
  > could have run over the last several decades. What
  > non-government operation would have done so in its
  > stead?
  >
• Unsavory decisions are made at large
  > corporations (yes, even railroads) all the time,
  > often resulting in money being left on the table.
  > The public sector has no monopoly on that.
  >
  > Why must you remap every issue onto your
  > black-and-white, bizarro ideological viewpoint?"

Actually, andersonb109's commentary is rather succinct: its not hard to note that for over a year the the climate around Amtrak has been less than customer friendly.  Frankly, your point "Unsavory decisions are made at large corporations (yes, even railroads) all the time" can be construed to be a cover-up for incompetent leadership.  My personal opinion and commentary of the situation is less diplomatic and not fit to print in public.

NYC4096 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> pennengineer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > andersonb109 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks
> > > government takeover of anything is a good
> idea.
> > > For the few PV's that are still family owned
> > and
> > > run public trips, they are getting so
> expensive
> > > for the owners just to cover their costs much
> > less
> > > make a profit, that the average patron will
> no
> > > longer be able to afford travel. Maybe that's
> > > Amtrak's goal in the long run.
> >
> > As has been pointed out to you numerous times:
> >
> >
>
>

• Without Amtrak, there would have been no
  > > national passenger network on which these cars
  > > could have run over the last several decades.
  > What
  > > non-government operation would have done so in
  > its
  > > stead?
  > >
  >
• Unsavory decisions are made at large
  > > corporations (yes, even railroads) all the
  > time,
  > > often resulting in money being left on the
  > table.
  > > The public sector has no monopoly on that.
  > >
  > > Why must you remap every issue onto your
  > > black-and-white, bizarro ideological
  > viewpoint?"
  >
  > Actually, andersonb109's commentary is rather
  > succinct: its not hard to note that for over a
  > year the the climate around Amtrak has been less
  > than customer friendly.  Frankly, your point
  > "Unsavory decisions are made at large corporations
  > (yes, even railroads) all the time" can be
  > construed to be a cover-up for incompetent
  > leadership.  My personal opinion and commentary
  > of the situation is less diplomatic and not fit to
  > print in public.

No, his commentary is a red herring. The fact that Amtrak is a ward of the government and that it has instituted this policy (which I personally disagree with) is correlation rather than causation. Amtrak has been a government operation since its creation, but the policy (which, again, I disagree with) was enacted last year. So, were its government-owned status the root cause of the problem, explain then its private car policy over the previous 45+ years, when its government status was very much the same.

Fact is, andersonb109 has repeatedly blamed any number of Amtrak's decisions/policies/practices of which he disapproves on government involvement, while paradoxically lauding foreign railway operations -- themselves very much state-run -- for those policies of which he approves. Which can only lead to two conclusions:
1) His statements don't hold water; OR
2) He for some reason thinks that the U.S. government is somehow inherently incompetent and/or inferior to any number of foreign governments (i.e. refer to option 1).

He may as well have said, "Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks the takeover of anything by white men in suits is a good idea." That statement would have been dismissed out of hand, and so should his blaming of the government.

The fact that government, in this case Amtrak, IS incompetent is right in front of you.  What more do you need to comprehend that???

Amtrak has been around 48 years. It was not always this incompetent. It is not a function of being a government entity. Anderson and Company just came from the private sector, mostly airlines, and they are all incompetent in multiple ways at Amtrak. 

pdt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sounds like corporate bs talk

I think if it were BS it would be something more like this:

"Amtrak must quickly redefine market positioning infrastructures while competently leveraging elastic opportunities system-wide, thus proactively productivate world-class models."

The key as I see it is the word "leverage" (or its variants).  Without this I'm not certain it can qualify as corporate BS.

Note: Thanks to https://www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html

No doubt Anderson/Gardner/Board need to go, the MAJORITY of us agree on that. A goverment entity can thrive and succeed, just like a private company can fail. That was the intended meaning of my touche earlier. If Amtrak wasn't a goverment entity with some limited oversight we would have kissed the SWC goodbye last month. So at least one fail safe worked. Your preaching to the choir with me Amtrak's management sucks and the organiztion has issues but its not strictly because its a goverment organization. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/19 10:02 by Flyer92122.

jcaestecker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The fact that government, in this case Amtrak, IS
> incompetent is right in front of you.  What more
> do you need to comprehend that???

An banana is a type of fruit. Do you think that means all fruit are yellow? (Hint: Amtrak is the banana in this analogy.)

I wonder what would happen if Amtrak complied with Congress' directives and really privatized a few long distance trains, such as the Coast Starlight.  Would a private business welcome a private car that would pay say $4,000 for a ride to Seattle?  Of course they would!!   And would those extra revenues help the trains financial performance?  Yup!  What is the difference?  Amtrak has no motoivation to succeed.  Their sole effort seems to be in extracting more sudsidies from the Federal government, regardless of the number of passengers or the need for their services.  I wish I were 30 years younger and had access to more investment capital.  We need some real entrepneur/adventurers to grab hold of Amtrak and make it work.  It can be done, with the proper incentives.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar