The following is quoted from an e-mail to the All_Aboard list by L.H. [nawdry@gmail.com]

Susan Pantell, a research associate with the Light Rail Now Project, has just completed an analysis of worldwide terrorist incidents in transportation spanning the past 40 years (1967-2007). Here's a quick breakdown of the percentage of total incidents by mode (rounded to 1 decimal):

Private Motor Vehicles 73.7%
Buses and Stations/Stops 9.5%
Aircraft and Air Facilities 8.6%
Rail Transit Trains 3.6%
Intercity Rail Trains 3.0%
Boats, Ships, and Maritime 0.9%
Other Transport Vehicles or Facilities 0.6%
   more »

I'm occasionally frustrated by advocates for good causes who make a lot of noise but aren't effective. And there are others who choose apathy and feel powerless when seeing that. I offer below a quick course in effective political communication. This is not regarding elections and voting but in working with those we've elected. The point is to have an impact, to be effective, rather than simply complaining among the choir.

Three main points: - All Politics is Local (the representative or official cares about how it will effect their district)
- QUALITY of communication is important (be concise and focused)
- Build a long-term relationship (we're all humans here!)

The mindset here is to be strategic; to ask, "What will it take to get X to happen?" Then you plan backwards, thinking about the laws and regulations that might have to change, who you'll have to reach to make that happen, and what points of leverage you have. Obviously there are other powers in play, so I'm not saying you can win all the time . . . But there ARE some things you can achieve.   more »

An interesting re-working of Amtrak's Florida service was posted by Bruce Richardson, of United Rail Passenger Alliance. My response is below:

Bruce, I liked your re-work of the Florida service in the latest TWAA. I hope somebody is listening.

Anyway I have a couple thoughts of my own to contribute to the scenario:

1. For Montreal service I suggest extending the Palmetto to Montreal instead as it could then roughly follow the schedule of the old Montrealer - but using only one additional trainset. This would give the Montreal service the beneifit of the Vermont ski trade, which is considerable, business to Burlington and Vermont-Florida business. Population along the Adirondack route is pretty sparse north of Albany. At the south end, an overnight Miami section could be added over FEC, making a nice two nights and one day service from Montreal.

2. Looking at the number of trainset required brings up the issue of late trains. If the trains ran more reliably, the service could be run with less trainsets   more »

I believe Amtrak can lower it's margins by eliminating Assistant Conductors. I'll write about this proposal later (I want to eliminate the work too, not just make Conductors work harder). However I don't believe that laying off Assistant Conductors is a good idea - instead Amtrak should increase it's service by 50%, retraining some conductors and Assistant conductors as engineers so that no jobs are lost, but passenger service is increased.

With that in mind, I worked up this scenario for how it might affect Maine service. The other goal here is to expand service to new areas that don't already have it in order to increase Amtrak's political base. Therefore, Amtrak service in this schedule has been extended to Bangor, rather than increasing trips going south of Portland.

To make this happen would require upgrading the Guilford line. I think funds could be found for this if there was a deal to operate it at the same level of subsidy as happens now.

So here is my Maine service timetable with a 50% increase in service.   more »

I’d heard the mornings incoming Lake Shore at Chicago was late and wondered if we’d be late leaving Chicago. But when I arrived at 6:50, the board said it was on-time. So I walked a few blocks up the canal for my last chance at exercise. When I returned I found a gigantic line stretching through the Amtrak boarding area. Apparently both we and the Capital Limited would be late boarding by at least an hour, though nobody seemed to have truly hard information. Something about a dinning car problem.

At first disruptions like this bring people together. A fellow behind me couldn’t speak English. I can’t speak Spanish, but the search for someone who did brought me together the charming Russian immigrants behind me. Then I heard music and found a group of dirty interesting young travelers (ie, without a permanent home) who (I was pleased to see) had an accordion and ukulele. A likable Dartmouth student joined us. We made plans to play music and sing and play charades later in the lounge car.

It was 10:15 before our 7:55 scheduled departure boarded. As the line moved forward a tall black woman was yelling at everyone, “have your tickets out of the envelopes,” over and over. I heard later on the train that she had been really rude to a number of people. Hopefully some apology and information announcements had earlier been made, but from my part of the line we couldn’t hear any. This women was my first contact with Amtrak staff. Then as we headed out to the train we were handed a bottle of water and a bag of chips. I assume this was “service recovery” for being late, but no explanation was offered, nothing to explain why we were getting this. No welcome aboard or apology; no words at all. Tickets were collected in the station and quickly people went to sleep. We postponed the music in the lounge car for the morning.

The coaches were almost completely full. At Toledo it was announced that the train was completely sold out.

Morning light came at Toledo; 6:45 am. Word circulated that the train was 6 hours late. And still we were crawling behind a string of yellow blocks. Perhaps it was 30mph, all across the top of Ohio and Pennsylvania. I had a very nice and reasonably priced breakfast in the rebuilt and half-empty dinning car. The steward had been good at making good announcements promoting the dinning car, but the volume of the PA in my car was too low to hear. It would really help to pass out menus for coach passengers.

As people roused themselves in the morning they became aware of how late the train was (now 7 hours) and grumbling became louder. Many “never again’s”. Boston passengers started to wonder what was going to happen when they arrived in Boston after the public transit system had shut. People started alerting their hosts. I lent my cell-phone to someone without so she could call her friend.   more »

I’d have taken the Vermonter to Springfield if it made the connection, but instead I drive to Schenectady. From Brattleboro Albany is not much further than Springfield. The time savings of going to Albany instead of the earlier departure at Springfield means I can work an extra day of teaching. My ticket is from Albany, but I changed my plans to Schenectady so I can meet a friend who lives a block from the station. This also solves my parking problem since I can leave my car at her place.

Schenectady station has all the charm of a 1970's bus station with it’s black waiting chairs and hard tiled floors and walls which smell like a locker room. The agent is tired but good natured. He tells us the Lake Shore left Albany about 15 minutes late, but when he makes his second announcement, giving us a 10 minute warning he interrupts himself, saying, “Oh it is here now, go upstairs now.” I’m caught unprepared (so is he, I guess) and I quickly stuff everything into my backpack and up we go, just as the train is rolling in. He’s rushing up with the baggage (in a garden cart) and the crowd sees the open door of a viewliner and heads that way. “Coach is this way,” I say.

The train is less than half full. Baggage, 2 viewliner sleepers (one is blanked out, I hear), rebuilt dinner, rebuilt lounge and 3 coaches. I’m directed into a coach that seems mostly bound for Erie, Cleveland and Toledo.

The coach attendant is fine but nothing beyond.   more »

I have some comments about the proposal, just introduced before the house and now in the appropriations committee, to buy new dmu (diesel multiple unit) equipment for the state supported Amtrak Vermonter service, which is important to our district and to me.

I just looked up the bill and have two concerns:   more »

Passenger Train Journal just ran an article on the Illinois Central’s “mini-corridor” from Carbondale to Champaign to Chicago. In the late sixties, when Paul Reistrup was Vice President – Passenger at Illinois Central, this route was developed.

Two lessons from this article: that local management of specific routes (the “brand manager” concept) does wonders, and that so much was lost when Amtrak began.

People re-creating organizations and networks have a proclivity to disregard the good in what came before them. After all their task is to sweep away all the deadwood, which indeed may be a problem. But it seems to come with the territory to sweep away a good bit of what was going well. At Amtrak George Warrington and David Gunn both fell into this trap. So did the DOT planner and congress when first creating Amtrak.
What if, instead of starting from zero with a skeleton map, the planners looked at each train service that was running and asked if it was performing well (Seaboard Coast Line’s Florida routes, for example), underperforming in a way that could be addressed or irredeemably useless to the whole network.

More below the fold, but here are the direct links to the two schedules I worked up in this 1971 "what-if" scenario: Chicago-Champaign-Carbondale "Mini-Corridor"
Chicago/St.Louis/Nashville-Memphis-New Orleans "Panama Ltd" / "City of New Orleans"   more »

I’ve been impressed with reports of the excellent quality and reliability of Talgo railcars. I suggest that Amtrak order a batch (and give Talgo the contract to maintain them, since they’ve done a better job of that in the Pacific Northwest than Amtrak).

Talgo cars are lightweight and cheaper to operate than conventional equipment and can run faster around tight curves because they tilt. Cars are low to the ground (improving handicapped access), articulated using less axels than conventional equipment and have better aerodynamic performance.   more »

If the train arrives in St. Albans too late the night before, it therefore becomes late the next day . . . affecting the northbound, and so on. Amtrak - across it's system - is short of extra crews. Ideally the crew that takes the train up from New Haven should be qualified on CSX and NECR as well so they can proceed on to Palmer or Amherst and meet the southbound counterpart there. And - even more radical - there should be some arrangement so Amtrak can draw from freight railroad extra boards from time to time. It's all a big jigsaw puzzel and it's impossible to always have a crew . . . but Amtrak - across it's system - has a consistent problem in this area.   more »

One women yelled at the café car attendant so much he closed down and refused to serve anybody else." Yikes!   more »

I present at this link, an imagined schedule for an improved Amtrak service to Vermont on the Connecticut River Valley route. I believe this should improve financial results at the same time as improving service. Highlights are a return of the Montrealer (as an extension of a Florida train, using only one extra equipment set) and an extension of a Springfield train from White River Junction, (not using any new equipment at all, just laying over at WRJ overnight instead of Springfield). Efficient use of equipment is part of what makes these runs financially viable.   more »