Passenger Trains > Amtrak provisions in House Invest In America Act

The House has unveiled its "Invest in America Act" which is assumed to
replace the FAST Act of 2015.  There are reforms to Amtrak in the
proposed Act.  Some of them may be hard for Amtrak to swallow (and Amtrak
may have its "friends" try to get them deleted).


--Walks back the food and beverage break-even provision.  Requires
Amtrak to offer the same food to all other passengers that is offered to
sleeping car passengers and that all passenger have access to hot meals.

--Reforms to Amtrak's board. Requires the board to represent all parts
of the country and all types of services.

--Prohibits Amtrak from using the binding mandatory arbritration
provision they instituted as a condition of ticket purchase.

--Requires more transparency with states on costs

--Increases funding for the national network to $16.2 billion over 5
years and $13.1 billion for the NEC over 5 years.

--creates a working group to improve food and beverage service (including
food quality), and to make recommendation (including the role of food
and beverage service to increase ridership).  Prohibits Amtrak from
making changes to food and beverage before working group issues report,
except it is required to repeal COVID19 changes.

--Amtrak has to pay 100% of operating costs of new state-supported
routes for 2 years.  It then falls by 10% per year until it hits 50%,
then they have to use the cost methodology required by law.

--Enshrines discounts for vets, children under a certain age,
and disabled passengers.

--says food and beverage service shall be provided by Amtrak employees.

--prohibits contracting out of call centers.

Sounds like there are some positive provisions in there. Maybe Amtrak will actually recover from the damage Anderson did while he was CEO.

Tom Loftus
Omaha, NE

I'd like to know what Stephen Garder is thinking right now.

I know for a fact that Gardner has worked the Hill to denigrate the national network. He told a northern NJ House Rep that the "long distance trains are bleeding us dry", setting up self-destructive scenario of "us" and "them" (or urban vs. rural or Blue vs.Red).

 

Long distance bleeding them dry? Yet how much is spent on the physical plant of the NEC? Why is that more important than the rest of the nation. Maybe they should split Amtrak NeX and national network. Then we would see what the real costs are.

Posted from Android

It seems the Anderson legacy is encountering some rough seas on the Hill. I don't see much in the way of "reform" though. It reads like a laundry list of petty grievances and congressional micro-management.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA

"Increases funding for the national network to $16.2 billion over 5
years and $13.1 billion for the NEC over 5 years."

 Imagine the wasteful spending that will slip through bureaucratic cracks... 
Anyone have a safety slogan to sell?  Maybe some coffee mugs, hats and jackets?  
Heck we'll even compensate employees to attend meetings to learn the nifty new process by our contracted consultants!   



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/20 05:13 by Molino.

The call center removal was a hoax, and it inflamed most of the California congressional delegation. Amtrak sold it, and staion agent removals, as "everyone" uses the Internet, so those people have nothing to do. Well 1 in 5 of them moved to Fort Washington, and many of the rest replaced by min-wage scabs in Florida. So I guess we needed them.

But Anderson thought he was Alexander Cassatt, and could do whatever he wants. But even Cassatt had to buy and bankroll the financially ne'er do-well LIRR to build the entire Penn Station and tunnel complex to get a NYS charter, so there was always political consequences involved. 

I think all of these proposals are fantastic -- EXCEPT ONE

Requiring Amtrak to pay for the first two years of any NEW State supported trains will simply mean -- Amtrak will not run 
any new State supported trains.

Why mess up the current system?  States are happily supporting many trains (and want more).  I haven't heard any States complaining 
about funding them.

"Long distance is bleeding us dry". Hmm wonder why the latest bailout requested by Amtrak managemnt two weeks ago has ninety percent that's (90%) going to bailout the NEC and corridors in general.  $1.46B with only $151M long distance network trains.
 
We can debate the unclear semantics of what the $151M will cover and maintain, possibly 3 times weekly service but assuming that is the case with fixed costs taken into account $250M should more than cover maintaining things AS IS.  Probably a lot less. Flynn's letter to Congress was refreshing in ways acknowledging what I've said above. It was blackmail as well in essence saying if they don't get what they want the long distance network will be first to go inspire if only being ten percent of the request. 

The network trains kept more passengers during the worst of the pandemic so far and I see them bouncing back quicker in general. 

 

ronald321 Wrote:

> Why mess up the current system?  States are
> happily supporting many trains (and want more). 
> I haven't heard any States complaining about funding them.

We lost the Indiana train.
We may lose the Grand Rapids train. 

ronald321 Wrote:
> Requiring Amtrak to pay for the first two years of
> any NEW State supported trains will simply mean --
> Amtrak will not run 
> any new State supported trains.

You are likely correct.  This provision will probably prove to be misguided.

> Why mess up the current system?  States are
> happily supporting many trains (and want more). 
> I haven't heard any States complaining 
> about funding them.

Except that the current system isn't working.  The Hoosier State died less than a year ago because Indiana didn't want to pay for it.  Expanded service in Wisconsin died before it could start in 2011 when a new governor came in.  Just recently there were discussions here of the Talgo sets that Wisconsin paid for, where Talgo turned around and sold them to Washington state (if I recall correctly).  There's been speculation here that the Pere Marquette will die of Covid-19.

I wonder if the Gulf Coast will get their train back to Mobile through this.  

joemvcnj

You probably forgot -- the Indiana train (Hoosier State) was the dog of all dogs. Terribly slow train - buses and driving were almost twice as fast.

Even the beautiful Illinois Central cars couldn't help.  And it was the rock bottom in ridership of all Amtrak trains.

So, please don't use this train as an example of States not wanting to support more trains.  Thank God it's gone and Amtrak's enemies can
no longer scream boondoggle, or wasteful spending.

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> joemvcnj
>
> You probably forgot -- the Indiana train (Hoosier
> State) was the dog of all dogs. Terribly slow
> train - buses and driving were almost twice as
> fast.
>
> Even the beautiful Illinois Central cars couldn't
> help.  And it was the rock bottom in ridership of
> all Amtrak trains.
>
> So, please don't use this train as an example of
> States not wanting to support more trains.  Thank
> God it's gone and Amtrak's enemies can
> no longer scream boondoggle, or wasteful spending.

And not wanting to spend a dime to upgrade the route. 
I don't see any more impetus of  states wanting to run more trains other than to Mobile, and maybe a 2nd frequency to St Paul. Wait until CP and Amtrak send Wisconsin and Minnesota the ransom note for that one. 15 years since the Three Rivers' demise and not one step closer to getting a 2nd Pittsburgh train than they were 15 years ago. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/20 08:55 by joemvcnj.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> --says food and beverage service shall be provided
> by Amtrak employees.

BAD MOVE! There is an overwhelming amount of information supporting a full review of the use of airline style contracted meal service.

Having great meals from a full diner on a train is great, but as I have said before, I as a tax payer have no desire to subsidize the costs of full diner service with meals made/cooked on board a tax payer subsidized train.

> --prohibits contracting out of call centers.

There are better ways to do that. Stipulate any call center outsourced must be in the US blah blah blah and if required employees must be a union member.

They are simply looking to de-Andersonize without much other thought. 
I do have a problem with race-to-the-bottom outsourced or off-shore labor. 

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Why mess up the current system?  States are
> happily supporting many trains (and want more). 

"Happily?"  Where did you come up with that?  Thirty-five years ago, Minnesota stopped funding the North Star.  Pennsylvania was somewhat relunctant to assume responsbility for the Pennsylvanian.  While it did come up with a plan to keep it operating, that funding is now jeopardized due to the Covid-19 panedemic fiscal impacts.  As noted above, the Hoser State no longer runs and Michigan may say no to one or more of its state-supported trains.

> I haven't heard any States complaining 
> about funding them.

 

Thanks to Rail Passenger Association for getting much of these positive provisions in the bill. Now, all you railfan and PRA members who care, especially those of you who live in “red” states, contact your senators and try to get them to see reason. If they don’t, point out that they will be labeled as the obstructionists who ended Amtrak service to their states.

John Webb
Trinidad, CA

Sometimes I think railfans aren't very familiar with Amtrak operations -- in this case, State supported trains

States support 29 (count 'um sometime) Amtrak routes, consisting of a Hell of a lot of trains.

They have supported them for MANY years, without train-off request -- that's why I say "happily" supported.

Look at these successful  trains (only a small sample), and tell me this is not a good system - why mess it up:

Surfliners (Ca, wants more)
Chi-St, Louis  (now 5 each way - Ill. wants 10 -- UP objects)
Chi-Milwaukee (wants more)
Empire Service
Keystone Service
Cascades
Downeaster

Just to name a few.  All growing, all popular.  I would call this a successful system of State support.  No need to mess it up, by
telling Amtrak they have to support any new ones.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/20 11:09 by ronald321.