Amtrak- The Company that Wants to Die

       I love trains, but I have a problem with the cheap ass, inefficient excuse for passenger rail service in this country. The US ranks number one in freight rail and 22nd in passenger service, gee I wonder why.

       First the track is owned by Union Pacific which certainly cares more about moving it's profitable freight than people.

       Amtrak is like the show" Whose Line is it Anyway?" where everything is made up and the points don't matter. Travel points that is. If I rack up thousands of points ( you get 2 points for every dollar spent) I'll be able to buy an overpriced blanket with an Amtrak logo. Worse than frequent flyer miles and who ever travels thousands of miles regularly on a train is a masochist.

      Time schedules are mostly hypothetical, delays are common because freight gets first dibs on the track. while I was on the Lame Shore, er Lake Shore Limited already running 3 hours late, the train stopped and went in reverse onto a side track to allow freight by. I guess we went making up too much time. The food used to be good but has declined because management decided the passengers weren't suffering enough.

      Amtrak has a revolving door of  CEOs, 13 since 1971, and is currently run by a former executive of Delta Airlines which gives you a good idea how much faith the US Government has in rail. That's right our incompetent government runs Amtrak and is slowly running it right into the ground at the taxpayers expense because they don't know how to just pull the plug and lit it die already.

       Passenger service sucks mostly because-reasons, but the truth is, no one is interested in it. Private rail declined in the fifties due to air travel. Fly on an airline subsidized by Uncle Sam, drive your car on the extensive hiway system paid for by federal funding, stay at tacky motels and deal with your bored kids.

       Trains are so European and who wants to be like them? China, Japan and Korea do. They invested heavily in fast, efficient trains, while we puddle along in outdated cars that can barely keep up with auto traffic.

        Amtrak has been promising fast trains for 30 years only to have a new service in the Pacific Northwest promptly derail on its maiden trip because the speed safety system was not operating. A system that was rejected by a penny pinching congressional transportation committee, a day after an earlier derailment.

       US Railroads- and it's barons- used to be the gold standard.  The US expanded with the building of the Transcontinental railroad in the 19th century, a major engineering feat at the time. Today, I think Amtrak might still be using the same equipment.

      What happened? Like I said, nobody cares about trains when we got cars and planes. Let's compare them, shall we.

       If accidents are measured by journey rather than mileage, airplanes are the 2nd most dangerous way to travel after motorcycles. More people die from plane crashes due to their high speed while than trains usually just fall off the track at a considerably lower altitude. Between 1971 and the present, there have been 112 deaths and 1,325 injuries from train derailments.

       Fuel studies have shown that planes and cars discharge roughly the same amount of CO2  but planes are used more frequently and for longer periods. Diesel trains cut CO2 in half per capita emission and are 30-40 % more efficient than planes and cars.

       Airlines enjoy all kinds of  handouts from the government, most notably after 9/11 when Congress gave them huge loans with no strings attached and little pressure to repay them. Kind like the bank bail outs- our tax money disappears forever. I always point this out when people bitch about our government subsiding  rail service. Yeah, the paltry amount it gets every year and has to beg for more.

       An article in Politico noted a key problem with Amtrak funding  "the rail system chronically operates in the red. A pattern has emerged: Congress overrides cutbacks demanded by the White House and appropriates enough funds to keep Amtrak from plunging into insolvency. But, advocates say, that is not enough to fix the system's woes."

       If you enjoy long travel times to and from the airport, check in and security theatre by TSA petty tyrants, by all means fly the not so friendly over crowded skies. Getting on board the train is as easy as getting on a bus.

       The one advantage airlines have is booking. Call a travel agent and they can do it no problem. Call Amtrak and you get the "Julie Experience" an cheerful automated agent with the intelligence of a doorknob. Some of us don't have the patience or time to figure out the byzantine system Amtrak uses.

       Did I mention this was the company that wants to die?            

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Amtrak Lessons

I love to travel by train. I’ve done it many times and have a tried and true method. First pack light. People are always lugging too much carry on when it’s easier to check it. Unlike the airlines it’s highly unlikely it will get lost.

Bring a pillow and a blanket if you are traveling overnight. The seats are not very comfortable but an improvement from the earlier models. They are designed for a six foot 185 pound man, the rest of us-eh. They provide pillows that are nice but small. I have one of those padded collars that I dearly love. I also have something to cover my eyes. Blinding sunlight at dawn is not good. Also, they announce breakfast in the dining car pretty early if the crying kid doesn’t wake you first. If you are traveling in a sleeper-never mind. They are quiet, comfortable and expensive but meals are included. 

Amtrak decided to make travel either steerage or luxury with no middle ground. The two level train I was on recently ( the Coast Starlight) had some empty compartments that I thought would be an excellent place to put in a dozen pullman bunks that Amtrak could sell for $50 a pop but they haven’t figured that out yet. I did some hardy souls curled up on the floor with the little pillow tucked under their head. Right where a bunk would be. See.

Bring a snack. There is a dining or bistro car on most trains but meals can be pricey and are of moderate quality. I like to have my own snack as back up.  However, a beer or cocktail is most enjoyable while watching the scenery. They used to show movies in the lounge car but now with wifi on board everyone has their own gadgets. By the way put that stupid gadget away and enjoy the scenery. 

Keep your schedule open. Amtrak tries to be on time despite Union Pacific’s attempt to thwart their plans so the train can be late. I had no problems with the shorter Cascadia train from Eugene to Seattle but the Coast Starlight which runs between Seattle and LA is often late. If you’re traveling by train you’re not be in a hurry anyway. Enjoy the scenery. Waking up to Mt. Shasta is always amazing. I do however have a bone to pick with Amtrak about one thing. 

This.

You’d think people in the passenger rail business would know better but no. It leads me to think that the Emeryville station was a mistake from the start. The location sucks, a few miles north of the Oakland station which loads passengers for the same train.The late night train passengers have nowhere to get snacks because everything is closed. During the day one must get tokens for the restroom from the surly and often busy staff because, god forbid the homeless should use them, so let’s make it inconvenient for the passengers. The heavy door is punishment for those hauling heavy carry ons.

Amtrak runs pretty well considering it’s problems. Delayed trains, old equipment, no advertising to speak of, indifferent upper management, poor pay. The US government gives huge amounts to the airlines but a pittance to rail, yet the trains are running at capacity. And everyone hates the airlines. Every president makes  hollow promises of increasing rail spending but nothing happens. Europe and China have efficient high speed rail on dedicated track. In this country the old slow moving trains have to move aside for priority freight. Nevertheless I would rather travel by train than by airline any day. No hassles with security theater, roomy seats, friendly staff and the scenery is great.

All aboard (except in Emeryville CA.).

Ghosts in the machine

I woke up at 10 am this morning, it was my day off from excerise while my left knee and ankle rested from the new strain of walking for a mile at a stretch. I was enjoying the feeling of idle sloth when I realized I had to get up and make a train reservation.

Fate was unkind by teasing me with a lower fare that magically disappeared when I called for a reservation. Noooooo! I swore at the cursed bad timing that plagues my life. I never seem to be in the right place at the right time. I talked to a guy named Michael who was so remote I might have done better with "Julie" a computerized representative so popular with corporations too cheap to hire more out sourced workers. She a cheerful voice that talks to you like you're an idiot and instantly makes my blood boil. Whoever came up with this idea ( and the automated phone tree) is seriously misanthropic.

Some people like "Julie", one Amtrak employee told me how he likes to flirt with her using explicit language that is beyond the comprehension of her tiny computer vocabulary. She doesn't get sarcasm either I've discovered. I know Julie is meant to remove the human factor in corporate transactions but I have her number -it's zero, punch that and you are transferred to a real person like the humorless Michael. Oh well.

That business out of the way I biked to the library where I do volunteer work in tech services. I made progress purging old, redundant copies of Danielle Steele and Tom Wolfe from the catalog. I felt like a censor in a communist regime. Here in the oppressive country of Eugenia we do not abide trashy novels. I gleefully blacked out bar codes and stamped "removed from library" on the first pages. I went home quite satisfied.

The first Thursday of the month is Instructor's class in aikido. It's kinda neat and intimidating to train with other black belts for a change. Neat cause I 'm playing with the big kids now and intimidating cause I have to be on top of my game and do the whole "extend ki" thing right rather than just act like I know what I'm doing with the lower ranked students. It's hard to explain but I am still amazed I can do this stuff. The instructor did some advanced testing and I didn't mentally flinch as he directed a wave of ki at me, meant to disturb my mind. I remained calm and focused much to my surprise.

Now if I can just do that while dealing with the likes of "Julie" . . .

railroads poor, airlines rich

In one corner we have people bellyaching about Amtrak losing $32 per passenger. Like this is a horrible waste of our tax money. Yet the government gives a very generous subsidy to airlines no one is even aware of, because you know flying is so much better, environment friendly and cost effective than those nasty old trains.

The same airlines that insisted, begged for a bailout after 9/11 because business suffered (sob) and the government gave them money with no string attached then said airlines promptly went bankrupt and couldn't pay those loans back. Sorry.

How much arre the airlines costing us compared to Amtrak?

American Railroad Fantasies

I have this fantasy of living near railroad tracks to indulge in some performance art. Not just any kind of performance mind you. When the daily passenger train goes by I would stage some entertainment in full view of those looking out the window until Amtrak calls me to “cut it out.”

“We really insist Ms McLaughlin that you desist from staging mock executions, strangling your neighbor or slaughtering a cow with a chainsaw. These disturbing stunts must stop. Passengers are complaining and some have been traumatized by your antics.” they would plead.

Their pleas will fall on deaf ears. I love riding trains, I think it is the coolest way to go. Much better than airplanes. No long check in lines, no stripping to get through security. They have food- not half bad- on most trips. The seats are fairly roomy, you can walk around and watch people, a movie or the scenery. However we are one of the few industrialized, rich countries that doesn’t have efficient, extensive passenger rail service and I hate that. Some form of protest of this poor state of affairs must go on until things improve.

“Hey, when you burecratic niwits figure out how to improve the lousy, expensive train service in this country then I’ll stop with the Quentin Tarnatino hour.”

While politicians wail about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, we build more roads and Amtrak has to go begging every year to get any subsidy. Mind you we have been subsidizing airlines for decades, we bail them out constantly. Meanwhile Amtrak’s on time service sucks because the train has to pull over for freight that share the tracks (Don’t even get me started on Union Pacific’s “screw you” attitude toward their customers and Amtrak ).

The current adminstration has pledged money to upgrade tracks and bring high speed service to some national corridors. Hmmpf, rail enthusiasts have heard that before. The Pacific Northwest has been trying to get a fast train line from Eugene Oregon to vancouver BC for more than ten years. Daily trains from Portland to Seattle are often sold out.

Instead of doing the same song and dance about helping the enviroment, changing our way of driving, blah, blah, blah let’s get on the fast train to the future like France, Germany and Japan have done.

Now who lives near some train tracks and will join me in the quest for better passenger rail service?