Passenger Trains > Why you may be wrong about Rail Passengers Association

Greetings.

I have just joined Trainorders and this is my first post to help counter misinformation about Rail Passengers Association (formerly known as National Association of Railroad Passengers). 

Several of your subscribers emailed me and were concerned about misinformation and comments they considered to be bordering on malicious in many posts so I am opening up the conversation to

1) set the record straight
2) provide accurate information
3) explain what a member organization can and can’t do and what it can reasonably be expected to do
4) answer your questions as best as I can and
5) not put up with anyone who can only whine about passenger rail issues without offering to pitch in and actually do something to help our association improve the rail travel experience for members and the public

As we are fond of saying…. BLUF… Bottom Line Up Front:
This Wednesday, November 13th at 10am Eastern Time the President/CEO of Rail Passengers Association, Jim Mathews, will testify before the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

Want to watch the hearing LIVE on Wednesday? Here’s the link to the story to get it: https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/hotline/hotline-1-142/

Mathews was asked to appear and Congress will be listening to what our Rail Passengers membership wants in a NATIONAL interconnected passenger rail network.

• We don’t want train-offs from an already fragmented system 
• We don’t want third world equipped trains 
• We don’t want poorly crafted food service for any train rider 
• We don’t want trains that run hours late 
• We do want more trains, to more places, for more people  
• We will support any public or private organization that meets these requirements

In subsequent posts I will explain that Rail Passengers Association is alive and well and over the past several years, thanks to a generous gift from a member, has allowed us to have a louder voice, a stronger voice.

We’ve been using that voice to reach the 40 million people that ride trains through the extensive use of social media. We’ve been using it with Congress and have influenced passenger rail policy (FAST Act among others). We’ve fought rail issues up to the Supreme Court and won. We’ve patted Amtrak and other passenger rail providers on the back and stood besides them when good deeds were done but we’ve also scolded providers when they fell down on their promises. 

But let's face it. Amtrak is a broken object and it has been that way for decades, hobbling along from one problem to another. It's way past time to change it. If Congress will hear us out and make those changes we can have a passenger rail network that this country deserves. 

I enjoy constructive criticism. I won't put up with “glass totally empty” people who have nothing of value to add to a conversation. 

I appreciate your comments.

Rail Passengers Association is alive, well and moving ahead
Peter J LeCody, Voluntary Chairman, Rail Passengers Association
plecody@narprail.org
 

Thank you for opening a constructive discussion!

You lose some credibility when you use a phrase like '3rd world equipped trains' in a professional environment when there is no such thing operated in the United States.
You may not like broken light switches or rattling sounds in a Superliner sleeper, but to compare such things to a 3rd world railroad makes you look like an uneducated railfan.

Posted from Android

My 2 cents is straight forward. As flawed as you may think RPA is it's light years BETTER than having no organization dedicated to fighting for better passenger rail. 

   May I suggest if you have strongly held views on subject areas you feel need important change then get active and give your views wide circulation and work hard to improve the effectiveness of the organization. 

    IMHO-Ross Rowland 

Sorry P but when I have to carry duct tape and something to wedge to keep a roomette door from falling off the track then what we have on a 40 year old sleeper is third world equipment. We must do better.

Posted from iPhone

Peter:
 Thank  you for  your efforts personally and  that of  staff.  Are  we  RPA members  always  pleased  with progress? Of  course not.  But  you are up against  years of  highway  and  air  focused  transportation  thinking in this  country. We need  rail in the  mix and  your organization is  working  for it. Now, daily CARDINAL please. No excuses  CSX. No more  infrastructure needed to  go  daily.  Thanks  

RailAdvo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry P but when I have to carry duct tape and
> something to wedge to keep a roomette door from
> falling off the track then what we have on a 40
> year old sleeper is third world equipment. We must
> do better.

Trains in third world countries don't have heat, air conditioning, water in the toilets, padded seats or food service.

Complaining about noise from a sleeping car is truly a first world problem and arguably an American one. Even high speed trains in Europe have rattles.

Passenger cars are constantly in motion and are constantly vibrating. Expecting a quiet train ride is unrealistic.

You have told us certain things you will "not put up with" from negative train fans. 

There are a few things we will not put with from your organization.- namely not calling a spade a spade regarding Mr, Anderson

We are not just "fans" - we are train riders, historians, observers, supporters, who know quite a lot about the "real world" of Amtrak. So we are not easily fooled.

We can analyze Mr. Anderson's performance at Amtrak and know he has achieved nothing but service downgrades, and destructive ideas like that
ridiculous bus bridge idea..  He even admits in an interview he has no clue what "Contemporary dining" means that he is promoting.

Congress has been very good to Amtrak in recent years - and unless you can show Congress that Anderson is responsible for all of the things
you are going to talk about before them -- well, why then should we "put up with" your organization.

Thanks for joining the discussion. I think a lot of us only see the Friday updates and occasional emails asking for donations. The Friday update “hotline” is the face of RPA to most members. 

With all the turmoil the past year whether it be possible trains offs, removing dining cars, new hard fought for equipment being used as axle counts or whatever the list of salient issues is long. The Friday updates the past six months have been tone deaf and could almost be considered satirical. I’ll use two or three current examples. 

The Chef Madi culinary tour of the United States this summer was ill timed with all the contemporary dining discussions (implementation on the LS/ CL) going on at the time. This quote from the website on 7/18/19 was one that came across tone deaf to me. “How does traveling by rail offer a different perspective to foodie experiences?” 
Ask that question to anyone riding a train east of the Mississippi now. As I pointed out on here last Thursday RPA was stone cold silent with the contemporary dining until the trip report 2 days ago. 

Amtraks CEO Richard Anderson is on record as saying he wants to discontinue 5-10 network trains with the remaining “experimental trains” possibly/probably not remaining with daily service.  Having a pick your favorite new route contest at a time like this makes no sense at all.  

The term third world equipment was used in this thread. Why isn’t the fact Amtrak has parked or is using brand new diners, baggage cars (dorms?) as axle counts been brought up to Congress. The white paper study should also be sent or re sent to every member of Congress. 

I guess what Im getting at is yes Amtrak has problems but until current management is removed nothing will change. Richard Anderson has used skewed facts and lies continuously in his tenure at Amtrak, the SWC and the shouting matches with Senators is another example of that. 

It doesn’t seem like RPA wants to go head to head with Amtrak management. Anderson is a snake waiting to bite and his nonsense should be called out strongly before he dismantles the network.

What are the problems which a private organization must overcome to provide passenger train service in the U.S.?

cutboy1958 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Peter:
>  Thank  you for  your efforts personally and
>  that of  staff.  Are  we  RPA members
>  always  pleased  with progress? Of  course
> not.  But  you are up against  years of
>  highway  and  air  focused  transportation
>  thinking in this  country. We need  rail in
> the  mix and  your organization is  working
>  for it. Now, daily CARDINAL please. No excuses
>  CSX. No more  infrastructure needed to  go
>  daily.  Thanks  
with dwindling traffic on the ex C&O (coal) there is not reason the Cardinal cannot go daily without any infrastructure inprovements.

bluesboyst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> with dwindling traffic on the ex C&O (coal) there
> is not reason the Cardinal cannot go daily without
> any infrastructure inprovements.

and with the Sunset Limited, too. I would enjoy seeing UP trying to explain why it needs capital investment while PSR is reducing its train count.

I wouldn't go so far as calling it third world equipment, more like first world deficiently maintained equipment. If it were truly third world, then there would be bars across the windows, goats running amuck, Kimchi pots stinking up the cars, people riding the roof, etc. Third world, not so much.

RailAdvo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry P but when I have to carry duct tape and
> something to wedge to keep a roomette door from
> falling off the track then what we have on a 40
> year old sleeper is third world equipment. We must
> do better.
>
> Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/19 22:44 by SP4360.

SP4360 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wouldn't go so far as calling it third world
> equipment, more like first world deficiently
> maintained equipment. If it were truly third
> world, then there would be bars across the
> windows, goats running amuck, Kimchi pots stinking
> up the cars, people riding the roof, etc. Third
> world, not so much.

The real tragedy is that at present there are many third world trains that are at least as good as and a few, specially tourist focused trains, distinctly better than American passenger trains. A 26 car fully airconditioned train of Sleeping cars - mostly sections but several roomette cars too, carrying 1500 passengers with large helpings of good quality hot meals served at each passenger's seat for every meal, pulled by 25kV electric engines over a thousand miles, traveling at 80mph with average speed around 55-60mph is the other side of the coin of third world railroads these days. Not everything fits the stereotype in the minds of ignorant Americans. That should give us some pause instead of bickering about whether a rattle is a third world or a first world problem.


 

One would expect NARP, in business for 52 years, to do some professional, empirical analysis on Amtrak’s business decisions, and also to have spent the last few years at least trying to strike the Mica F&B language from FAST or PRIIA. Such was not the case.

We already know the Fixed Cost Accounting White Paper has been placed on the back burner, and was not seen by any of the 7 Congressional offices that some of us, not under the auspices of NARP, visited last Spring, including that of the Senate Minority leader.

In 2018, Amtrak said Contemporary Dining on 2 trains will save $3 million per year. Then in 2019, Amtrak says they will save just $2 million for Flexible dining on the next 4 trains, with all 6 six trains having it. That makes no sense, only scratches the surface on the $141 million F&B budget item, and hides it under sleeping car accounting, which just got a huge fare hike. Furthermore, with the more costly Flexible dining food with no staff reduction on the Cardinal means it was budget negative to implement it on that train. But all NARP official can say about the entire topic is “that is the hand we were dealt” and “we cannot turn the clock back”.  It sounds as though NARP works for Amtrak.

This past summer would have been a good time to have pulled and analyzed detailed revenue data, plus CSI scores, separating coach and sleeper, via FOIA, of the sort that Anderson has yanked from Amtrak monthly reports to see ticket revenue effects before and after June 1, 2018 when traditional dining was abolished on the two trains, and taking into account contradictory cost savings. Instead, NARP goes on a ridiculous, distracting Chef Madi tour, possibly to impress Millenials. If $3 million is all that was saved, a 5% reduction in ticket revenue on the Lake Shore Ltd and 7.5% reduction on the Capitol Ltd would nullify the savings. Judging from the periodic ridership stats that PTJ publishes, and cost and revenue data per train from other sources, which by the way ought to be in the NARP Newsletter and is not, nullified savings may well have happened.     

One can contact and visit Congress under the auspices of other organizations or as individuals and bring up issues that NARP will not because NARP neglects data analysis and fears agitating Mr. Anderson. That is what an increasing number of us will be doing.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/19 10:56 by joemvcnj.

The timing of Summer By Rail and its food theme this year has proven _precisely_ impeccable due to the state of flux in Amtrak's food service. Trains matter, food matters, and RPA vocally cares about the linkages between the two. Chef Madi's content weaves these two aspects of Americana at each stop, musing about the roles of food access at stations and within communities.

She also honestly reviews some of Amtrak's food offerings along the way.

Finally, she provides valuable prospective on the front-and-back-of-house aspects of food service operations, with her final blog post providing informed admonition to Amtrak and highly actionable feedback.

The US is in a "foodie renaissance" and Madi's journey yielded invaluable press coverage which engaged new, more diverse audiences with the passenger train advocacy cause. What's not to love here?

Also, the ongoing implications on this forum that RPA is somehow not engaged on the food service topic is provably false. A cursory search of our site archives will demonstrate that.

We consistently opposed the original Contemporary Dining format, fought hard to bring hot meal options to bear, expressed grave concerns about service delivery (which have anecdotally proven prescient), and pressed hard for more options for coach passengers and greater transparency and sensitivity for those with special dietary needs.

Moreover, we're working hard in public and behind the scenes to affect a Reauthorization bill that will unshackle Amtrak from its mandate for food service to break-even on a standalone basis, and allow Amtrak to invest in more equipment. If you want better food service, you need to vocally demand it from your member of Congress and your Senators.

That's where the only meaningful improvements will happen.

I encourage everyone here to read up on our work on this and other topics. We always welcome _constructive_ feedback on how to engage Amtrak. We don't have a magic wand.

Also, personal attacks on specific Amtrak executives might feel satisfying in the moment, but would cost us credibility and do a disservice to the greater traveling public who we represent. "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

Posted from iPhone

Thank you for your reply. We’re on the same team so it pains me to disagree with you on most points. I still feel the culinary tour was tone deaf.  Calling out skewed facts and the inability to deal with stakeholders (shouting matches) by Anderson is not a personal attack at all. He is also on record multiple times with his goal of dismantling the system with said skewed facts. 

It’s a disservice to members acting like he isn’t a part ( a big part) of the problem.  Yes it goes deeper to Chao and Trump but Richard Anderson is not an advocate for a cohesion nationwide rail system he’s forwarding the administrations goals of destroying it. 

I wish Mr Matthews the best on Capital Hill tomorrow,  it’s a fine line but the kid gloves need to come off. I’m in almost weekly contact with my Senators and Rep concerning the SWC. Trust me when I say Mr Anderson is seen as part of the problem in their eyes and not liked. 

The majority of us on this site are more than novice rail fans and probably ride Amtrak more then the majority of the RPA staff. We want the system to work and are seeing first hand how the system especially the network trains are not.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/19 12:05 by Flyer92122.

Mr LeCody - while  I appreciate your attempt to encourage constructive conversation, since you are new to TO you will soon find out that it is a very difficult objective on this subject board.  Unless you are willing to use juvenile nicknames, and advocate for the return to the early 1950's streamliners serving every town in America with a 5 star restaurant dining car, you will never win over some of the people on this board.

Before we get hung up on the phrase third world trains to describe some of Amtrak's issues, and dismiss those concerns as first world problems, I might point out that anyone who's traveling on an Amtrak sleeper is paying first world rates for accommodations that too often are badly maintained or in very bad order. 
And let's keep in mind the age of most of Amtrak's rolling stock: old to very old. That's not an issue when the cars are well maintained.  But in many cases that's not the case.             

About 40% of the Superliners are about 25 years old. VIA Rail's entire non-corridor fleet, except for the REN cars which are on death row, are 64 years old. The oldest cars in the Amtrak fleet hold down all NE non-Acela service. It's about maintenance and Amtrak's refusal to do even minor wreck repairs. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/19 12:39 by joemvcnj.