Will segmented train routes work?

   An issue that is bound to be heavily debated in coming months is the idea of breaking up long distance Amtrak routes into segments
that involve a series of day trains covering the same routes. 

   The idea originated with anti-Amtrak sources in the Administration, but actually dates back further, having been proposed by various think tanks with anti-rail orientations. 

   The apparent money- saving idea is that there would no longer be a need for sleeping cars and the crews to man them. The day trains would cover the same route, but there would be no overnight operation, so that travelers whose routes included an overnight portion would have to occupy hotel rooms between train segments. 

   The National Association of Railroad Passengers has been performing comparison analyses of existing long distance routes and the segmented routes that would most likely substitute for them. The results are so weighted in favor of the long distance routes that no logical justification could be made for the segments.

   Rather than creating cost saving for Amtrak, the segmenting would actually either yield no savings or raise costs, while reducing patronage to such an extent that the segmented route would fail altogether. 

   Of course, creating a route failure might be the ultimate aim of the anti-rail originators of this scheme. 

   Amtrak President Kummant and other company officials continue to mention this plan while being fairly noncommital and saying it would be evaluated carefully. If the evaluation is indeed done carefully and rationally, it would seem that no possible case could be made for segmenting. 
 
 

Amtrak train 371, the Pere Marquette, on Nov 30 struck the rear of a CSX freight train in a Chicago rail yard as the train approached its Chicago end point.

Two Amtrak employees in the engine cab were injured. Early reports said that five Amtrak employees were injured in the cab. Evidently the train carried a total of five employees. There were 187 passengers aboard, and some of them suffered injuries--numbers varied from report to report. There were no life-threatening injuries.

The engine was heavily damaged, after running up atop the last car of the freight train. The passenger cars were not derailed. Damage was estimated at $1.3 million, primarily to the Amtrak locomotive. 

The engineer reportedly told investigators later that he had speeded up to 40mph in spite of signals requiring a 15mph speed. Normally the section of track is a 79mph zone. The engineer said he applied the brakes upon seeing the freight ahead, and slowed to about 35mph before the collision.

Uninjured passengers were bused on to the Chicago station. The crash was recorded by a surveillance camera, which will further aid NTSB investigators. A final determination of the cause is months away.

The Pere Marquette operates daily between Grand Rapids MI and Chicago IL. The train is named after Father Jacques Marquette, a 17th-century Jesuit explorer around the Great Lakes region.

The Amtrak board in November elected Donna McLean its chairperson. The term of former chair David Laney expired in November. Although nominated by the anti-Amtrak White House, Laney became an activist chairman who helped move Amtrak forward to greater prominence in the transportation field.

   Rail Travel News will resume publication late in December, published by Citizens for Rail California. The first issue will carry the cover date of Jan 2008 and is projected to be mailed during the last week of December.

   RTN editor Jim Russell will continue to write for the publication. Further information is available at the website www.railpac.org

   With global warming and an oil crisis inexorably approaching, the passenger rail mode is receiving more attention from citizens, the media and politicians--with the usual exception of the White House.

   The Senate has passed bill S294 by a veto-proof vote of 70-22. The House must still act on its version. The Senate Lautenberg-Lott legislation re-authorizes Amtrak for six years, giving it $11.45 billion over that time period for passenger rail improvement. Amtrak has never before been so generously endowed.

   Editorials are more favorable to Amtrak and to enlarging and improving its system than ever. Among new calls for added service are the restoration of the DESERT WIND and the NORTH COAST HIAWATHA.

   Behind the favorable editorials, one senses a feeling of inevitability, that the nation unquestionably needs the rail option given the threatening future of energy, transportation and pollution control.

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