Acela Express in
West Windsor, New Jersey .]]
service with tilting
Talgo trainsets in
Seattle, Washington .]]
.]]
The , doing business as '''Amtrak''' , is a quasi-governmental corporation that was organized on
May 1 1971 , to provide
Intercity Passenger Train service in the
United States . "Amtrak" is a
Portmanteau of the words "American" and "track".
1
All of Amtrak's
Preferred Stock is owned by the Federal government. The members of its
Board Of Directors are appointed by the
President Of The United States and are subject to confirmation by the
United States Senate .
Common Stock was issued in 1971 to railroads that contributed capital and equipment; its current holders
Web archive of U.S. House of Representatives report consider it worthless but declined a 2002 buy-out offer by Amtrak.
''The Past and Future of U.S. Passenger Rail Service'', sec. 4 n.21 (Sept. 2003).
Amtrak employs nearly 19,000 people. It operates passenger service on 21,000 miles (33,800 km) of track primarily owned by other railroads connecting 500 destinations in 46 states.
Amtrak Fact Sheet . Some routes serve
Canada . In fiscal year 2006, Amtrak served 24.3 million passengers, a company record. According to estimates for fiscal year 2007, Amtrak has served over the 25 million passenger mark, a 6% increase from last year.
2
2000 Amtrak unveiled "''...a new logo whose shape and suggestion of movement convey the comfort and uniqueness of the rail experience.''"
3 ]]
The history of Amtrak begins with the decline of privately-operated passenger rail. From the middle 19th century until approximately 1920, if a person traveled from one city to another in the United States, the trip almost certainly was by rail. By
1910 , close to 100% of intercity passenger trips were made by railroad.Schafer, Mike. ''The American Passenger Train'', St. Paul, MN: MBI Publ'g, p. 20 (2001). All of those services were provided by private, for-profit organizations. Approximately 65,000 railroad passenger cars were in operation in 1929.Carper, Robert S., ''American Railroads in Transition; The passing of the steam locomotives.'' A.S. Barnes & Co.:New York, NY, p.112 (1968).
For a long time after 1920, passenger rail's popularity plateaued and there were a series of pullbacks and tentative recoveries. Rail passenger revenues declined dramatically between 1920 and 1934,Schafer, Mike, ''supra'' at 97. but in the mid-1930s, railroads reignited the popular imagination with service improvements and introductions of new, diesel-powered
Streamliner s, such as the gleaming silver ''
Pioneer Zephyr '' and ''
Flying Yankee ''.Schafer, Mike, ''supra'' at 99-102. Even with the improvements, on a relative basis, ridership continued to erode and by 1940 railroads held a far less dominant 67% share of all passenger-miles in the United States.Shafer, Mike, ''supra'' at 104.
World War II broke the malaise. During the war, troop movements and restrictions on use of automobile fuel generated a sixfold increase in passenger traffic from the low point of the Depression.Shafer, Mike, ''supra'' at 106. After the war, railroads rejuvenated overworked and neglected fleets with a multitude of fast and often luxurious streamliners — epitomized by the ''
Super Chief '' and ''
California Zephyr '' — which inspired the last major resurgence in passenger rail travel. In
1948 , Santa Fe CEO
Fred G. Gurley reported a "complete reversal of our passenger traffic picture", with
1947 revenues exceeding those of
1936 by 220%. Inspired by America's leadership, European and Japanese railroads also launched their own streamlined,
High-speed Rail services.
The postwar resurgence was short-lived. In 1946, there remained 45% fewer passenger trains than in 1929,Shafer, Mike, ''supra'' at 112. and the pace of decline quickened despite railroad optimism. Passengers disappeared, and so did the trains. Between (1958). By 1965, only 10,000 rail passenger cars were in operation, 85% fewer than in 1929.Carper, Robert S., ''supra'' at 113. Passenger service was provided on only 75,000 miles of track, a stark decline.''Ibid.'' Passenger rail service in the United States showed the signs of underinvestment. Rail facilities suffered from decrepit equipment, cavernous and nearly empty stations in dangerous urban centers, and management that seemed intent on driving away the few remaining customers. The 1960s also saw the end of
Railway Post Office revenues, which had helped some of the remaining trains break even despite the dearth of passengers.
The causes of the decline of passenger rail were complex. The industry was hobbled by government regulation and labor inflexibility, which undermined passenger rail just as the industry faced an explosion of competition from massively subsidized automobile and airplane transportation.
All this marked the path to oblivion. Rail interests were structured to sell access to elaborate, efficient,
Roads at a profit; they could not compete for passengers with parallel turnpikes, air strips, and highways in the sky. The competing modes were in many ways convenient and faster. They fostered independence. But most importantly, as the costs of running a passenger railroad rose, highways in particular were ''cheaper'', as they were built with public funds and without a profit motive. The decline was a failure of a business model as much as the failure of a technology.
Passenger rail's vibrancy first was interrupted by government intervention brought about by the
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Just after the turn of the 20th century, populist rate-setting schema and a WWI wartime nationalization of the rail industry erased ample railroad profits, reversed growth of the rail system, and contributed to massive underinvestment from approximately 1910 to 1921.Slason Thompson, ''A Short History of American Railways'', Books for Libraries Press: Freeport, NY (1925, reprinted 1971), p. 324-391. Meanwhile, labor costs advanced, and with them passenger fares, which discouraged passenger traffic just as automobiles gained a foothold.Slason Thompson, ''supra'' at 405.
Later the ICC intervened in other ways, also to the detriment of passenger rail. In 1947, the ICC ruled that passenger trains could not exceed 79 mph (127 km/h) without special
In-cab Signaling Systems ; the systems were derided as unnecessary and prohibitively expensive, and after issuance of the regulation, plans to develop intercity
High-speed Rail services were shelved. In 1958, the ICC was authorized to allow or reject modifications and eliminations of passenger routes (''train-offs'').Shafer, Mike, ''supra'' at 125. Previously, individual states made those judgments, and the reform that came about with the Transportation Act of 1958 was intended to streamline the process. Many routes at that time required beneficial pruning, but the ICC delayed action by an average of eight months and when it did authorize modifications, the ICC insisted that unsuccessful routes be merged with profitable ones. Thus, fast, popular rail service was transformed into slow, unpopular service.Morgan, David P., ''supra''. The ICC was even more critical of corporate mergers. Many combinations, which railroads sought to compete, were delayed for years and even decades, such as the merger of the
New York Central Railroad and
Pennsylvania Railroad , into what eventually became
Penn Central , and the
Delaware, Lackawanna And Western Railroad and
Erie Railroad into the
Erie Lackawanna Railroad . By the time the ICC approved the mergers in the 1960s, disinvestments by the federal government, years of deteriorating equipment and station facilities and the flight of passengers to the air and car had taken their toll and the mergers were unsuccessful.
At the same time, government insisted that railroads carry a substantial tax burden. A World War II-era excise tax of 15% on passenger rail travel survived until 1962.
Local governments, far from providing needed support to passenger rail, viewed rail infrastructure as a ready source for property tax revenues. In one extreme example, in 1959 the
Great Northern Railroad , which owned about a third of one percent (.34%) of the land in
Lincoln County, Montana , was assessed more than 91% of all school taxes in the county.Morgan, David P., ''supra'' at 20.
Railroads also were saddled with antiquated work rules and an inflexible relationship with
Labor Union s. Work policies did not adapt to
Technological Change .Morgan, David P., ''supra'' at p.14-15, 21. Average train speeds doubled from 1919 to 1959, but unions resisted efforts to modify their existing 100 to 150 ''mile'' work days. As a result, railroaders' work days were roughly cut in half, from 5 to 7½ hours in 1919, down to 2½ to 3¾ hours in 1959. Labor rules also perpetuated positions that had been obviated by technology. Between 1947 and 1957, passenger railroad financial efficiency dropped by 42% per mile.
While passenger rail faced internal and governmental pressures, new challenges appeared that undermined the dominance of passenger rail: highways and commercial aviation. The passenger rail industry wilted as government backed these upstarts with billions of dollars in construction.
Beginning roughly in the WWI era, cars became more attainable to most Americans. Soon, government actively began to support with public funds a non-profit network of roads not subject to property taxation that rivaled and then surpassed the for-profit network that the railroads had built in previous generations with corporate capital. The
Federal Highway Act funded the Interstates, local governments built compatible networks of local roads, and all told between 1921 and 1955 governmental entities financed more than $93 billion worth of pavement, construction, and maintenance.Morgan, David P. ''Who Shot the Passenger Train?'' ''Trains'', p.14, et seq. (April, 1959) In turn, more Americans embraced the flexibility, convenience and privacy of personal transportation by automobile over public transit alternatives. Intercity bus services also saw declines.
In the 1950s, a second and more formidable threat appeared: affordable commercial aviation. Government at many levels supported aviation. Governmental entities spawned sprawling urban and suburban
Airport s, and funded construction of massive highways to provide access to the airports.
Metroliner car, built by Budd, circa 1968]]
In 1967, the
National Association Of Railroad Passengers (NARP) was formed to lobby for government funding to assure the continuation of passenger trains. Its lobbying efforts were hampered by the opposition of the
Democratic Party to any sort of subsidies to the privately-owned railroads, and
Republican Party opposition to the
Nationalization of the railroad industry. The proponents were aided by the fact that few in the federal government wanted to be held responsible for the seemingly-inevitable extinction of the passenger train, which most regarded as tantamount to political suicide. The urgency of the need to solve the passenger train problem was heightened by the
Bankruptcy filing of the
Penn Central , the dominant railroad in the
Northeastern United States , on
June 21 1970 .
Under the
Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, Congress created the (NRPC) to subsidize and oversee the operation of intercity passenger trains. The Act provided that
- Any railroad operating intercity passenger service could contract with the NRPC, thereby joining the national system.
- Participating railroads bought into the NRPC using a formula based on their recent intercity passenger losses. The purchase price could be satisfied either by cash or rolling stock; in exchange, the railroads received NRPC common stock.
- Any participating railroad was freed of the obligation to operate intercity passenger service after May 1 1971 , except for those services chosen by the Department of Transportation as part of a "basic system" of service and paid for by NRPC using its federal funds.
- Railroads that chose not to join the NRPC system were required to continue operating their existing passenger service until 1975 and thenceforth had to pursue the customary Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) approval process for any discontinuance or alteration to the service.
For some time, there was a veto threat from President
Richard M. Nixon . The veto never materialized and the act was signed into law on
October 30 ,
1970 . The original working brand name for NRPC was , but shortly before the company started operating it was changed to '''Amtrak'''.
The Nixon administration and many Washington insiders viewed the NRPC as a politically expedient way for the President and Congress to give passenger trains the one "last hurrah" demanded by the public. Cynics expected Amtrak to quietly disappear as public interest waned.Luberoff, David. ''Amtrak and the States''. ''Governing Magazine''. p.85 (Nov. 1996). Proponents also hoped that government intervention would be short-lived, but their view was that Amtrak would soon support itself. Neither view has yet proved correct. Popular support has allowed Amtrak to continue in operation longer than critics imagined while financial results have made infeasible a return to private operation.
See Also: List of railroads eligible to participate in formation of Amtrak
Amtrak began operations
May 1 ,
1971 . The corporation was molded from the passenger rail operations of 20 out of 26 major railroads in operation at the time. The railroads made contributions of
Rolling Stock , equipment, and capital. In return, they received approval to discontinue their own passenger services, and at least some acquired
Common Stock in Amtrak. Notably, Amtrak received no
Railroad Track or
Right-of-way at its inception. Railroads that shed passenger operations were expected to host Amtrak trains on their tracks, for a fee.
, speeds through North
Elizabeth, New Jersey in December 1975.]]
There was a period of adjustment. All of Amtrak's routes were continuations of prior service, although Amtrak immediately pruned about half of the existing passenger rail network. Out of the 364 trains that were operated previously, Amtrak only continued 182. On the trains that were continued, to the extent possible, schedules were retained with only minor changes from the ''
Official Guide Of The Railways ''. Former names largely were continued.
Several major corridors initially became freight-only, including
New York Central Railroad 's ''
Water Level Route '' across
New York and
Ohio and
Grand Trunk Western Railroad 's
Chicago to
Detroit service, although service soon returned to the ''Water Level Route'' with introduction of the ''
Lake Shore ''. Reduced passenger train schedules created headaches. A 19-hour layover became necessary for eastbound travel on the ''
James Whitcomb Riley '' between
Chicago and
Newport News .
Amtrak also inherited problems dealing with station facilities, most notably stations with deferred maintenance, and redundant facilities resulting from competing companies that served the same areas. On the day it started Amtrak was given the huge responsibility of rerouting passenger trains from the then seven existing train terminals in
Chicago (LaSalle, Dearborn, Grand Central, Randolph, Chicago Northwestern Terminal, Central, and Union) into just one, Union Station. In New York Amtrak had to pay to maintain
Penn Station and
Grand Central Terminal due to lack of track connections to bring trains from upstate New York into Penn Station, a problem that was not rectified until the building of the
Empire Connection in 1991. In many cases Amtrak had to abandon service into the huge old ''
Union Station s'' such as ones in Cincinnati, Saint Paul, Buffalo, Detroit, Kansas City, and Saint Louis and route trains into smaller Amtrak-built facilities down the line (although Amtrak has pushed to start reusing some of the old stations, most recently
Cincinnati Union Terminal , and
Kansas City Union Station ).
On the other hand, merged operations also presented efficiencies such as the combination of three West Coast trains into the ''
Coast Starlight '', running from
San Diego to
Seattle . The ''
Northeast Corridor '' received an ''
Inland Route '' via
Springfield ,
Massachusetts , thanks to support from
New York ,
Connecticut and
Massachusetts . The ''
North Coast Hiawatha '' was implemented as a second
Pacific Northwest route. The
Milwaukee to
St. Louis ''
Abraham Lincoln '' and ''
Prairie State '' routes also commenced. The first all-new Amtrak route, not counting the ''Coast Starlight'', was the ''
Montrealer ''/''
Washingtonian ''. That route was inaugurated
September 29 1972 , along
Boston And Maine Railroad and
Canadian National Railway track that had last seen passenger service in 1966.
Amtrak soon had the opportunity to acquire railway. Following the bankruptcy declaration of several northeastern railroads in the early 1970s, including the
Penn Central which owned and operated the
Northeast Corridor , Congress passed the
Railroad Revitalization And Regulatory Reform Act of 1976. A large part of the act was directed to the creation of a
Conrail , but in addition the law enabled transfer to Amtrak of the vital Northeast Corridor railway from
Boston, Massachusetts to
Washington, DC . That trackage became Amtrak's crown jewel. In subsequent years, various short route segments not needed for freight operations were transferred to Amtrak. Nevertheless, in general, Amtrak remained dependent on freight railroads for access to most of its routes.
Amtrak fell far short of achieving financial independence in its first decade, but it did find modest success rebuilding ridership. Outside factors discouraged competing modes of transportation, such as fuel shortages which increased costs of automobile and airline travel, and airline strikes which disrupted airline operations. Intensive investments in Amtrak's track, equipment and information resources also made Amtrak more relevant to America's transportation needs.Jones, William. ''Americans Rediscover Trains; Trains are rediscovered.'' ''The Washington Post'', p.D8 (May 12, 1979). Yemma, John. ''Years Later, Amtrak is Keeping Riders Won in Gas Pinch.'' ''The Christian Science Monitor'', p.4 (July 21, 1980). Amtrak's ridership increased from 16.6 million in 1972 to 21 million in 1981.Nice, David C. ''Amtrak; The History and Politics of a National Railroad.'' Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Pubs. p.24. (1998).
at the
Brattleboro, Vermont , station,
18 March 2004 .]]
Unlike many large businesses, subsequent to its formation Amtrak has had only one active investor: the
United States Government . Like most investors, the Federal government has demanded a degree of accountability. Determination of congressional funding and selection of Amtrak's leadership have been infused with political considerations. As discussed below, funding levels and capital support have varied over time. Political pressures extend to Amtrak's very route structure. As with any federally supported activity, the more states and congressional districts served, the more political support in Congress.
Some members of Amtrak's board and executive leadership have had little or no experience with railroads. Conversely, Amtrak also has benefited from the interest of highly motivated and politically-oriented public servants. For example, in 1982, former U.S.
Secretary Of The Navy and retired
Southern Railway head
W. Graham Claytor, Jr. , brought his naval and railroad experience to the job. Claytor had served briefly as an acting U.S.
Secretary Of Transportation in the cabinet of President
Jimmy Carter in 1979, and came out of retirement to lead Amtrak after the disastrous financial results during the Carter administration (1977-1981). He was recruited and strongly supported by
John H. Riley , an attorney who was the highly skilled head of the
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) under the Reagan Administration from 1983-1989. Secretary of Transportation
Elizabeth Dole also tacitly supported Amtrak. Claytor seemed to enjoy a good relationship with the Congress for his 11 years in the position. Of course, politics aside, that may have also been because he was perceived to have done a good job in reducing costs and living within a smaller appropriation, albeit through extensive use of short-term debt.
4
Ridership stagnated at roughly 20 million passengers per year amid uncertain government aid from 1981 to about 2000.Nice, David. ''Amtrak; The History and Politics of a National Railroad.'' Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Pubs. (1998). Amtrak, ''1999 Annual Report.'' Ridership increased in the 2000s after implementation of capital improvements in the Northeast Corridor and rises in automobile fuel costs. Since 2002, Amtrak has had four consecutive years of record ridership. During fiscal year 2006, Amtrak reported more than 24.3 million passengers, its highest total to date. Amtrak, ''2006 Annual Report''
Available online. accessed July, 2007. According to Amtrak, an average of more than 67,000 passengers ride on up to 300 Amtrak trains per day.
In the 1990s, Claytor was succeeded at Amtrak's helm by career public servants who inherited the goal of ''operational self-sufficiency''. First,
Thomas Downs was assumed the leadership. Downs had overseen the
Union Station project, which experienced substantial delays and cost overruns. Downs inherited monumental financial goals and departed after guiding Amtrak narrowly through a cash crunch.
George Warrington succeeded Downs in January, 1998. Warrington previously led Amtrak's Northeast Corridor Business Unit. Warrington's sought to meet the requirements of a legislatively-imposed glide-path to self-sufficiency, excluding railroad retirement tax act payments.United States General Accounting Office. ''Intercity Passenger Rail; Amtrak Faces Challenges in Improving its Financial Condition''. Report GAO/T-RCED-00-30 (Oct. 28, 1999). Passengers became "guests" and there were expansions into express freight work, but the financial plans failed. Amtrak's inroads in express freight delivery created additional friction with competing freight operators, including the
Truck ing industry. Warrington also had the burden of delays in implementation of the new
Acela Express high-speed trainsets, which promised to be a strong source of income and favorable publicity along the
Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington DC. Under Warrington, Amtrak could not add sufficient express revenue or cut sufficient other services to break even.
-bound Amtrak train passes through
Porter ,
Indiana , after departing from
Chicago in 1993.]]
David L. Gunn was selected as president in April 2002. By that time, self-sufficiency was falling out of favor as a realistic goal. Gunn had a strong reputation as a straightforward and experienced manager. He was not one to shy away from conflict with others. Years earlier (between 1991 and 1994), Gunn's refusal to "do politics" put him at odds with the
WMATA (Metro) board, which included representatives from the District of Columbia and suburban jurisdictions in
Maryland and
Virginia . Gunn was an accomplished public servant and railroad person and his successes before Amtrak earned him a great deal of credibility, despite a sometimes-rough relationship with politicians and labor unions.
Gunn was polite but direct in response to congressional criticism. In a departure from his predecessors' promises to make Amtrak self-sufficient in the short term, the Gunn administration took the stance that ''no'' form of passenger transportation in the United States is self-sufficient as the economy is currently structured, and that Amtrak should not be judged by different standards than other transport modes. Highways, airports, and air traffic control ''all'' require large government expenditures to build and operate, coming from The Highway Trust Fund and Aviation Trust Fund paid for by user fees, highway fuel and road taxes and in the case of The General Fund by people who own cars and do not. These expenditures are indirect subsidies unlike Amtrak's which fall under the watchful scrutiny of Congress when budget allocations are made yearly. Before a congressional hearing, Gunn answered a demand by leading Amtrak critic
Arizona Senator
John McCain to eliminate all operating subsidies by asking the Senator if he would also demand the same of the commuter
Airline s, upon whom the citizens of Arizona are dependent. McCain, usually not at a loss for words when debating Amtrak funding, did not reply.
Gunn's tenure was punctuated by successes in reducing layers of management overhead in Amtrak. He eliminated almost all of the controversial express business. His policy was that continued
Deferred Maintenance would become a safety issue, which Amtrak would not tolerate. The policies improved labor relations to some extent, even as Amtrak's ranks of unionized and salaried workers have been reduced.
, at
Providence, RI , in 2005]]
2005 . Given Gunn's solid performance, many Amtrak supporters feared that Gunn's removal was Amtrak's death knell. On
August 29 2006 ,
Alexander Kummant was named as Gunn's permanent replacement effective
September 12 2006 . Kummant has expressed a commitment to see that Amtrak continues to operate a national rail network. He does not envision separating the Northeast corridor (the segment from Boston to Richmond) under separate ownership. He has said that shedding the system's long distance routes would amount to selling off national assets that are on par with national parks, and that Amtrak's abandonment of these routes would be irreversible. He has recommended annual congressional funding of Amtrak in the amount of $1 billion for ten years. He said that this investment is moderate, in light of Federal investment in other modes of transportation. He compared the cost of four or five highway interchanges with the costs of providing one hundred mile-per-hour
High-speed Rail service for several hundred miles.
NY Times article by Matthew Wald and John Philips, "Surprising Forecast for Amtrak," New York Times, December 23, 2006.
The list of Presidents of Amtrak includes:
heading to New York in Winter Park, FL.]]
Amtrak commenced operations in 1971 with $40 million in direct Federal aid, $100 million in Federally insured loans, and a somewhat larger private contribution. Phillips, Don. ''Railpax Rescue.'' in ''Journey to Amtrak; The year history rode the passenger train''. Ed. Harold A. Edmonson. Milwaukee, WI: Kalmbach Pub. Co., pp. 8-11 (1972). Officials expected that Amtrak would break even by 1974, but those expectations proved unrealistic and annual direct Federal aid reached a 17-year high in 1981 of $1.25 billion.$709 million of the 1981 aid package was for operations. The remainder was capital appropriations. Vranich, Joseph. ''Derailed; What Went Wrong and What to Do About America's Passenger Trains''. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, p. 37 (1997). During the
Reagan Administration , appropriations were halved. By 1986, Federal support fell to a decade low of $601 million, almost none of which were capital appropriations. National Railroad Passenger Corp. ''Statistical Appendix to Amtrak FY1995 Annual Report'', ''1995 Annual Report, p.1. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Congress continued the reductionist trend even while Amtrak expenses held steady or rose. Amtrak was forced to borrow to meet short-term operating needs, and by 1995 Amtrak was on the brink of a cash crisis and was unable to continue to service its debts.National Railroad Passenger Corp. ''1999 Annual Report'', p.41. In response, in 1997 Congress authorized $5.2 billion for Amtrak over the next five years -- largely to complete the Acela capital project -- on the condition that Amtrak submit to the ultimatum of self-sufficiency by 2003 or liquidation.''Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997''. 105th Cong. (Jan. 7, 1997). Congressional Budget Office. ''S. 738 Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act'' (July 22, 1997), in ''104th Cong. Senate Report 105-85'' (Sept. 24, 1997). Amtrak made financial improvements during the period, but ultimately did not achieve self sufficiency.
In the aftermath of the
September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks , during which Amtrak kept running while airlines were grounded, the value of a national passenger rail service was briefly acknowledged in Washington. But when Congress returned to work following the attacks, the airlines received a $15 billion bailout package, and inattention toward Amtrak resumed.
In 2004, a stalemate in Federal support of Amtrak forced cutbacks in services and routes as well as resumption of deferred maintenance. In fiscal 2004 and 2005, Congress appropriated about $1.2 billion for Amtrak, $300 million more than President
George W. Bush had requested. However, the company's board requested $1.8 billion through fiscal 2006, the majority of which (about $1.3 billion) would be used to bring infrastructure, rolling stock, and motive power back to a state of good repair. In Congressional testimony, the Department of Transportation's inspector-general confirmed that Amtrak would need at least $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion in fiscal 2006 and $2 billion in fiscal 2007 just to maintain the status quo. In 2006, Amtrak received just under $1.4 billion, with the condition that Amtrak would reduce (but not eliminate) food and sleeper service losses. Thus, dining service were simplified and now require two fewer on-board service workers. Only
Auto Train and
Empire Builder services continue regular made onboard meal service.
State governments have partially filled the breach left by reductions in Federal aid. Several states have entered into operating partnerships with Amtrak, notably
California ,
Pennsylvania ,
Illinois ,
Michigan ,
Oregon ,
Washington ,
North Carolina ,
Oklahoma ,
Wisconsin and
Vermont , as well as the
Canadian province of
British Columbia , which provides some of the resources for the operation of the
Cascades route.
Aid to Amtrak by government was controversial from the beginning. Formation of Amtrak in 1971 was criticized as a bailout serving corporate rail interests and union railroaders, not the traveling public. Critics assert that Amtrak has proven incapable of operating as a business and does not provide valuable transportation services meriting public support,Vranich, Joseph. ''End of the Line; The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains'' (2004). a "mobile money-burning machine."Wicker, Tom. ''In the Nation; Young David's Tantrum.'' ''The New York Times'', p.A31 (May 3, 1985) They argue that subsidies should be ended, national rail service terminated, and the Northeast Corridor turned over to private interests. "To fund a ''Nostalgia Limited'' is not in the public interest."Frailey, Fred W.. ''Can Amtrak Survive the Budget Cutters?'', ''U.S. News and World Report'', p.52 (April 13, 1981).
Proponents point out that the government heavily subsidizes the
Interstate Highway System and many aspects of passenger aviation. Massive government aid of those forms of travel was a primary factor in the decline of passenger service by privately owned railroads in the 1950s and 60s. Amtrak still, indirectly, through fees to host railroads, pays property taxes that highway users do not pay. Advocates assert that Amtrak only should be expected to be as self-sufficient as those competing modes. In other words, it should not be expected to be self sufficient at all.
Proponents also argue that rail passenger service merits public support because it is safer and more energy efficient than competitors, and often more convenient and comfortable. Amtrak serves many communities which have no air service or other public transportation. If rail operations received favorable treatment and capital support on par with automobile infrastructure and air transport, proponents argue that rail passenger service in America would not be so humble and would be more relevant to a greater number of transportation needs.
Intractable positions staked out by labor leaders were blamed for part of the decline of passenger rail service in the early to middle 20th century, and
Labor Union clout was widely credited with facilitating the creation of Amtrak in 1971. Many trade union jobs were saved by the bailout.
In recent times, efforts at reforming passenger rail have addressed labor issues. In 1997, Congress released Amtrak from a prohibition on contracting for labor outside of the corporation (and outside its unions), opening the door to privatization.''Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997.'' 105th Cong. (Jan. 7, 1997). Since that time, many of Amtrak's employees have been working without a contract. The most recent contract, signed in 1999, was mainly retroactive.
New Amtrak president Kummant seems poised to follow a cooperative posture with Amtrak's trade unions. He has ruled out plans to privatize large parts of Amtrak's unionized workforce.
12
service on the
Northeast Corridor .]]
See Also: List of Amtrak routes
List of busiest Amtrak stations
Amtrak no longer is ''required'' by law to operate a national route system, although it nonetheless is encouraged to ''strive'' to do so.''Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997.'' 105th Cong., Senate Report 105-85 (Sept. 24, 1997). At the present time, Amtrak has some presence in all but two of the 48 contiguous states.
PDF route map. Service on the , that provides connections to train routes.
The most popular and heavily-used routes are those on the ; (2)
Washington (Union Station) ; (3)
Philadelphia (30th Street Station) , and (6)
Boston (South Station) . The remaining members of the top six are, (4)
Chicago (Union Station) and (5)
Los Angeles (Union Station) .
Amtrak trains have both names and numbers. Train routes are named to reflect the rich and complex history of the route itself, or of the area traversed by the route. Each individual scheduled run of the route is assigned a number. As a general rule, even-numbered routes run north and east while odd-numbered routes run south and west. Some routes, such as the ''
Pacific Surfliner s'', use the opposite numbering system, inherited from the previous operators of similar routes, such as the
Santa Fe Railroad .
Some of the more prolific trains are as follows:
- '' — Buffalo — Albany — New York
- '' — Philadelphia — New York
- '' — Boston
The relevant statistics suggest that passenger rail is competitive with other modes in terms of energy efficiency and safety per mile. Nevertheless, in the current economic environment challenges remain with respect to cost per mile.
Intermodal connections between Amtrak trains and other transportation are available at many stations. With few exceptions, Amtrak rail stations that are located in
Downtown Areas have connections to local
Public Transit . Amtrak also
Code Shares with
Continental Airlines , providing service between
Newark Liberty International Airport (via
Its Amtrak Station and
AirTrain Newark ) and
Philadelphia 30th St ,
Wilmington ,
Stamford , and
New Haven . In addition, Amtrak serves airport stations at
Milwaukee and
Baltimore .
Amtrak coordinates
Thruway Motorcoach service to extend many of its routes, particularly in
California .
cars, used on long-distance routes.]]
See Also: List of major cities in U.S. lacking Amtrak service
Outside the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak was a niche player. In 2003, Amtrak accounted for 0.1% of US intercity passenger miles (5,680 million out of 5,280,860 million total, of which private automobile travel makes up the vast majority).
18
In fiscal year 2004, Amtrak routes served over 25 million passengers, while in calendar year 2004 commercial airlines served over 712 million passengers.
19
Amtrak provides some rail service in 46 states. The only states that are not served by Amtrak are
Hawaii (which is in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean ),
Alaska (which is served by the
Alaska Railroad ), and
South Dakota , (although in years past there was service by the
Milwaukee Road to South Dakota, however Amtrak has never instituted any service to there).
Wyoming lost rail service in the 1997 cuts, but is still served by Amtrak's
Thruway Motorcoach es. Amtrak serves many states only nominally through stations along borders and/or away from major population areas. Many major cities in the Midwest, West, and South have two or fewer trains per day, such as
Atlanta ,
Denver ,
Cincinnati ,
Indianapolis , and
Minneapolis/Saint Paul .
Amtrak's reliance on freight railroads has also been a cause for its elimination of service. Passenger rail service was entirely discontinued to
Phoenix, Arizona in 1997, after the
Union Pacific Railroad , which owns the tracks that served Phoenix, announced it was abandoning the right of way. Amtrak did not have the funds to maintain the trackage thus today the city is only served only by Thruway Motorcoach. In 1983 the
Palmetto was truncated from
Saint Petersburg to
Tampa due to Amtrak not being able to take on the costs of maintaning the
Seaboard Coast Line drawbridge that took the train over Tampa Bay.
Damage to railroad track caused by
Hurricane Katrina interrupted service on the
Sunset Limited . Originally the train departed from
Orlando, Florida , but the track damage along the Gulf coast caused the train to originate at
New Orleans, Louisiana . The track's owner,
CSX , completed repairs by early 2006 but Amtrak service has not resumed over one year later, leaving the intermediate stations between Orlando and New Orleans without any Amtrak service.
Several significant Amtrak routes have been eliminated due to lack of funding since 1971, creating other gaps. The east-west train feeding
Kansas City with New York and Washington D.C. known as the
National Limited was cut, leaving the only direct links between the Midwest and East through
Chicago . The
North Coast Hiawatha between Chicago and
Seattle provided only reduced service between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. The last link with the vaunted
Chicago -
Florida services of such trains as the ''
City Of Miami '', the ''
Dixie Flagler '', and the ''
South Wind '', was broken when the ''
Floridian '' was discontinued in October
1979 . In 1997, the
Desert Wind and
Pioneer were discontinued, along with service to
Las Vegas ,
Boise , and all of Wyoming. In 2003 and 2005 Amtrak also discontinued the
Kentucky Cardinal ending all service to
Louisville , and the
Three Rivers which provided another direct and daily New York to Chicago service through Pennsylvania.
Also throughout the seventies Amtrak had also provided many secondary cities in Pennsylvania such as
Reading and
Bethlehem with service, yet has since discontinued it. All these gaps in service remain major concerns in the Amtrak system.
Amtrak operates a loyalty program called , which is similar to the
Frequent Flyer Program s offered by many
Airline s. Guest Rewards members accumulate points by riding Amtrak and through other activities. Members can redeem these points for free or discounted Amtrak tickets and other awards.
Amtrak Express provides small package and less-than-truckload shipping services between more than 100 cities. Amtrak Express also offers station-to-station shipment of human remains to many express cities. At smaller stations, funeral directors must load and unload the shipment onto and off the train. Amtrak hauled mail for the United States Postal Service and time-sensitive freight, but discontinued these services in October 2004. On most parts of the few lines that Amtrak owns,
Trackage Rights agreements allow freight railroads to use its trackage.
See Also: Commuter rail in North America
Through various commuter services, Amtrak serves an additional 61.1 million passengers per year in conjunction with state and regional authorities in
California ,
Washington ,
Maryland ,
Connecticut , and
Virginia . Amtrak's ''
Pacific Surfliner '' (formerly ''
San Diegan ''), ''
Capitol Corridor '', and ''
San Joaquins '' are mostly funded by a state transit authority,
Caltrans , and not the Federal government.
Most tracks on which Amtrak operates are owned by freight railroads. Amtrak operates over all seven
Class I Railroad s in the United States, as well as several
Short Line s — the
Guilford Rail System ,
New England Central Railroad and
Vermont Railway . Other sections are owned by
Terminal Railroad s jointly controlled by freight companies or by
Commuter Rail agencies. The arrangement has two notable impacts on Amtrak operations. The host railroad is responsible for maintenance and occasionally Amtrak has suffered service disruptions from untimely track rehabilitation. When host railroads have simply refused to maintain their tracks to Amtrak's needs, Amtrak occasionally has been compelled to pay the host to maintain the tracks. Also, Amtrak enjoys priority over the host's freight traffic only for a specified window of time. When a passenger train misses that window, host railroads may (and frequently do) direct passenger trains to follow lumbering freight traffic, severely exacerbating even minor delays.
Along the Northeast Corridor and in several other areas, Amtrak owns 730 route-miles of track (1175 km), including 17 tunnels consisting of 29.7 miles of track (47.8 km), and 1,186 bridges (including the famous
Hell Gate Bridge ) consisting of 42.5 miles (68.4 km) of track. Amtrak owns and operates the following lines:
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train with two
AEM-7 locomotives running through New Jersey on the Northeast Corridor.]]
See Also: Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor between
Washington, D.C. and
Boston via
Baltimore ,
Philadelphia ,
Newark and
New York is largely owned by Amtrak, working cooperatively with several state and regional commuter agencies. Amtrak's portion was acquired in 1976 as a result of the
Railroad Revitalization And Regulatory Reform Act .
The part of the line from New Haven to the New York/Connecticut border (
Port Chester /
Greenwich ) is owned by the state of
Connecticut , while the portion from Port Chester to New Rochelle is owned by the state of
New York . The
Connecticut Department Of Transportation and the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority operate this line through
Metro-North Railroad .
See Also: Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line
This line runs from Philadelphia to
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania . As a result of a successful investment partnership with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, signal and track improvements were completed in October 2006, and now allow all-electric service with a top speed of 110 mph (about 175 km/h) to run along the corridor.
See Also: Empire Corridor
See Also: New Haven-Springfield Line
Amtrak also owns station and yard tracks in
Chicago ;
Hialeah (near
Miami ,
Florida ) (leased from the State of Florida);
Los Angeles ;
New Orleans ;
New York City ;
Oakland (Kirkham Street Yard);
Orlando ;
Portland, Oregon ;
Saint Paul, Minnesota ;
Seattle ; and
Washington, D.C.
Amtrak owns the
Chicago Union Station Company (
Chicago Union Station ) and Penn Station Leasing (
New York Penn Station ). It has a 99.7% interest in the
Washington Terminal Company (
Washington Union Station ) and 99% of
30th Street Limited (Philadelphia
30th Street Station ). Also owned by Amtrak is Passenger Railroad Insurance.
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:
See Also: Amtrak rolling stock
''Rail Disasters
- ''Amtrak System Timetable, Fall 2004/Winter 2005''
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- Mike Schafer, Amtrak's atlas, '' Trains '' June 1991
- Kevin McKinney, At the dawn of Amtrak, '' Trains '' June 1991
''National''
