Passenger Trains > A Letter to My Senator

I am in the process of composing a letter to my congressional delegation.  I'm from Delaware.  I don't think I have any classified documents in my garage.  I am favoring writing to Sen Tom Carper, Delaware's senior senator.  In the 90s Sen Carper was on the Amtrak Board.  Of course Sen Carper understands the NEC because he rides it daily.  

What are the key points to focus on in a succint letter?

A.  Mismanagement of resources.
           1. Personnel---letting go of personnel during pandemic, now unable to fill those resources.
            2. Management bonuses  For what?
            3.  Equipment
                   New equipment-  poorly written initial specifications, poor fielding of new eqipment   
                         Did Chargers and coaches fail because of poor initial specs?   Siemens design and production?  How do you summarize that???
                    Existing equipment---Too much equipment stored.  Failure to maintain equipment especially during pandemic
            4. Operational equipment bases.  Can't get trains out on time.   History/culture of poor performance.  Chicago.  Lack of can do attitude.
           

B.  Poor Operations
           1.  Late trains   Unreliable equipment,  Crew avaiability,  Host railroad interference or lack of support, schedules too heavily padded to accomodate host
            2   Canceled trains.   Too easily done   
            3.  Network Design.   3 day/ week trains not conducive to serving public.   Trains only in middle of night to major areas.  
            
C   Customer Relations/Customer Care
           1.  Communications to passengers/public during unusual situations.  
            2.  Food.   Lack of food choices for coach customer
             3. Cleanliness/appearance of exterior.  Dirty windows say we don't care.  
             4. Short trains  mean lack of accomodations

Summary.  Is this the best summary?  Amtrak management seems more focused on cutting cost than focusing on customer satisfaction.  Look what happened to Southwest Airlines.  

How to say all of this in a page or so?  What are the facts to back this up?  Is it useful to attempt to all of this or pick one or two areas? 
I solicit your input.

All I can say is good points, but I doubt anything's gonna change since it seems they in DC could care less about Amtrak !

Anyone in communications will tell you...FWIW...stick to just your 3 top things.  After that, Its too much, and ppl will not care or read...and the whole letter might end up in the TLDR file.

My take....

1.  Mgmt has failed to have any type of post Covid ramp up plan.  Hundreds of cars sitting at maintenance facilities waiting to be fixed, Trains running at half size and half capacity

2. Number of cancalled trains and trains breaking down enroute is over the top (cite some sort of staistic), with amtk telling customers "you;re on your own now"

3. Senior management giving congress  excuse after excuse.  No one accepting responsibility for anything.  Major Airlines have made a post covid ramp up.  Even after the SWA metldown, they accepted responsibility for the problems, and corrected them and paid ppl for their inconvenience.  

WHERE THE HELL IS AMTRAK.  WHERE THE HELL IS THE SEC'Y OF TRANSPORTATION?


When u mention "everythihg", you become a whiner or complainer.   I would keave food off the table at this point.    Amyone who is riding Amtrak for the food, needs to have their head examined.    Its transportation 1st.   Rail passenger Transportation.
 
If you are complaining that Amtrak is not the land cruise that u think it should be...you might as well be complaining that the post office didnt get your overnight letter delivered overnight.   No none cares.  Everyones  got much bigger fish to fry.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/23 15:03 by pdt.

My thoughts are to "keep it simple".
​
Start with a 'Bottom Line Up Front' message: - A short summary of the 'problem' and what remedy you are seeking.

Have you or your family been personally impacted by the service issues at Amtrak?  Or are you writing as a concerned citizen?

Suggest you focus first on Delaware-specific topics:
- Delayed/cancelled LD and corrdior trains that run through Delaware (Crescent? Florida 'Silver' trains?)

Then you could mention concerns about Amtrak in general, icluding all the delays, equipment problems, staffing issues, etc.
 

Top 3 points as mentioned above ending with Amtraks management needs to be replaced. Short and sweet

Don't get too technical either. We have a tendency to, and some of us have STEM aptitudes. With Congressional aides, they don't have the time or pateience to get into the weeds, and a lot of them were Poli Sci or English majors, different mindset. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/23 03:18 by joemvcnj.

I've just finished reading "Amtrak America's Railroad" by Doughty, Darbee, and Harmon. One key takeaway of their history and analysis is this quote from Tom Downs "It is imperative that board members be instructed on their fiduciary responsibility to see that Amtrak succeeds". I suggest that "fixing" Amtrak begins at the top with installing a board dedicated to that view -- and this is where the senate can actually do something. Confirm board members who understand the railroading, transportation, and hospitality business and want to make Amtrak succeed at what it supposed to - provide a transportation service where success is measured by how much it is used not by how little you spend.
The first thing an energized board woud do is redirect or replace current management to make that happen

WP17



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/23 17:24 by WP17.

casco17 Wrote:

> Start with a 'Bottom Line Up Front' message

I'm reminded of the protcol for Army education: "First you tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Then you tell 'em. Then you tell 'em what you told 'em." Might work for Senators too.
 

My advise to any letter to a senator is keep it simple and describe your grievances in a manner that doesn’t require an understanding of rail operations. Keep it straightforward and as brief as possible to get your point across and stay out of excessive detail that someone who isn’t a rail enthusiast, someone employed in the rail industry, or someone who is or was a regular rail passenger is going to understand. I’m not sure I’d include a demand to remove Amtrak management either - that may cause the letter to be dismissed as ranting or whining. Politicians don’t like to be told what to do and also aren’t interested in running a railroad so I might leave that out even if that’s how you feel.

Just explain your concerns as simply as possible in a way they can understand and in a manner that will get their attention without going off on a tangent or making demands - simply encourage them to look into and investigate the matter and as another poster suggested bear in mind that their biggest concern is Delaware to try to frame it in that context. And definitely keep it as short as possible.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/23 05:37 by lordsigma.

lordsigma Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My advise to any letter to a senator is keep it
> simple...

Yes, with a focus on a (1) brief problem statement, (2) the impact of the problem and (3) corrective action for the problem. You don't want the reader to inventing his/her own action plan.

Put as much thought into (2), the results, and (3), the remediation, as you put into (1). 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/23 11:41 by MirandaDepot.

Management is there for a reason,  mostly political.   I'm sure many Tesla shareholders would love to remove Musk,  maybe to another planet,  but ain't gonna happen.   Board members are there,  either for the bucks they're paid,  or as placeholders for the executive suite whom they continue to reward with whatever.   End of story.

Looks good! I'm planning on writing Pete Butigieg, the Secretary of Transportation. Maybe you should send one to him as well.

Tom Loftus
Omaha, NE

The important thing is we all write and have friends and relatives do as well, if youre able to convince them.  Issues that receive volumes of emails and calls get acted on.  The wording isn't as important as the main gist of the comments. One thing I might add however make it clear you are pro Amtrak just unhappy with current management/operations. You wouldn't want your letter/comments to be misconstrued as someone who wants Amtrak defunded. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/23 14:42 by Flyer92122.

Don't know how this is going to play out, but here is a possible looming threat to Amtrak:

Rep. Scalise said that Republicans “haven’t talked about reducing defense spending,” which means the roughly $130 billion in discretionary spending reductions that would have to take place in order for the fiscal 2024 government funding bills to comply with the fiscal 2022 spending levels would all come out of non-defense discretionary programs. That side of the federal balance sheet includes hundreds of programs, such as the Agriculture Department, Army Corps of Engineers, Homeland Security, the Energy Department, national parks and forests, Transportation Department and veterans health care programs.  (Boldface added).

Link to full article:

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2023/01/10/u-s-house-gop-plan-calls-for-federal-spending-cuts-conditions-on-debt-limit-increase/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/23 18:57 by RuleG.