A Look at the Amtrak Capitol Corridor 2010-2012 Capital Budget

California’s Amtrak Capitol Corridor carries a minuscule number of passengers, but is spending a whopping $325 million on capital improvement projects. What exactly are we getting for that money?

• $70 million for the Sacramento station relocation. In effect, a real estate development funded in part by transit dollars.

• New platforms at Sacramento and San Jose, and the new Fairfield-Vacaville station — plus $50 million for new rolling stock. Of course, no consideration whatsoever to provide level-platform boarding at the new platforms. (The new trains, by the way, are ludicrously over-priced thanks to FRA and Buy-America.)

• $50 million for track improvements along the Oakland-San Jose segment. Prop 1A (High-Speed Rail Bond) is paying for this. Ridership on this segment of the Capitol Corridor has always been under-performing, and will get worse once the BART-SJ extension opens.

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Congress May Force Amtrak to Implement Pets Policy

As discussed earlier on this blog, Amtrak has no interest in allowing pets to travel on trains. Even though there is a huge market potential, and many other train operators permit pets on-board.

Congress may now force Amtrak’s sclerotic management to implement a pets policy:

H.R. 2066, the Pets on Trains Act of 2013, introduced by U.S. Reps. Jeff Denham, (R-CA) and Steve Cohen, (D-TN), would require Amtrak, the national rail operator, to implement a pet policy to allow passengers to travel with domesticated cats and dogs on certain trains.

“My dog, Lily, is part of our family and travels with us to and from California all the time. If I can take her a on a plane, why can’t I travel with her on Amtrak, too?” said Rep. Denham. “Allowing families to bring their animals with them will facilitate transportation and efficiency while also providing a much-needed source of revenue for Amtrak.”

Under the legislation, Amtrak would be required to develop a policy for people to travel with their pets, and to designate, where feasible, at least one car of each passenger train in which a ticketed passenger may transport a dog or cat.

In related news, the Amtrak Board extended Joseph Boardman’s contract by another two years. Given his $350,000 annual salary, he is way overpaid if you ask me.

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Amtrak Doesn’t Want Your Pet Either

Amtrak, the heavily subsidized rail operator, will carry your firearm, but is not eager to carry your bicycle. Nor will they carry your dog or cat. Amtrak won’t permit any pets on-board at all, except for guide dogs.

The only options for pet owners are driving, flying, or pet boarding. In the case of flying, pet owners are understandably skittish about sending fido through the airport luggage system, or in the cargo hold. So this is one market where Amtrak could be hugely competitive against the airlines — if only Amtrak management weren’t so sclerotic.

By comparison, SNCF in France has pet accommodation, as does Renfe in Spain. Even Via rail in Canada allows pets to travel aboard the luggage car.

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Anderson Cooper Is Right

Once again, the Amtrak foamers are in an uproar over a CNN report criticizing the Administrations’ high-speed rail program:

“There’s a network of people who really do believe, deep down — they’re rail enthusiasts — they believe in the idea of bringing the Japanese or the European style trains here to the U.S.,” Griffin told Cooper. And he went on, patronizingly: “But as we have explained to them, even after we got email bombed, ‘Look, you’re not getting high-speed rail,’ and they will admit it. They will admit that this administration is not investing in the actual bullet trains like the ones that they believe will bring us into future of transportation. It’s not what we’re getting, Anderson.”

The inconvenient truth is that the CNN report is absolutely correct. The Obama Administration did spend 4 years and well over $12 billion and with nothing to show for it. To put in perspective: the US just spent the equivalent of three new TGV-Est lines.

Most of that $12 billion got thrown down the Amtrak money hole of antiquated rail lines. There has been not one single mile of true high-speed rail built anywhere. Not even California’s flagship project, which will for the foreseeable future function as a diesel-powered Amtrak line.

And all these foamers who are email bombing CNN are part of the problem. As long as Amtrak has their vocal army of defenders, nothing will ever improve.

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The Three Stooges

In case you missed it, here is video of the Amtrak Press Conference — where it was announced that California will be buying Acela-2 trainsets.

And if you were wondering how (or why?) a single trainset may be designed for both the NEC and CHSRA, you can listen as John Boardman explains that it is simply a matter of switching the trucks…or um, something.

And if you were wondering how this will reduce costs for California, you can listen as Jeff Morales explains that Buy-America policies, and a proprietary FRA spec will increase their buying power…or um, something.

Actually, the entire video is a huge embarrassment to the profession. I suggest having a lot of stiff drinks to make it through all the cringe-worthy moments.

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CA High-Speed Rail To Buy Trains…From Amtrak

One of the puzzling things about the CHSRA has been its inability to work with existing partners. For example: Caltrain and the CHSRA are supposed to be sharing track and stations (as part of the “blended” plan) — but there has been almost no cooperation between the two agencies. Those new EMU trains that Caltrain will be getting with electrification are being designed without any input from CHSRA. Same for the new Caltrain signal system.

And now that mystery got a lot weirder. Amtrak and the CHSRA have announced they will be doing a joint procurement on train sets:

Amtrak and the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) are joining forces in the search for proven high-speed rail (HSR) train sets currently being manufactured and in commercial service that are capable of operating safely at speeds up to 220 mph on both Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC) and on California’s developing HSR corridor.

“This is about investing in 21st Century state-of-the art high-speed rail,” said California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Jeff Morales. “We are pleased to join with Amtrak and look forward to continued collaboration in the future. This is a natural fit since Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and California will be the bookends for American high-speed rail.”

Perhaps Jeff Morales isn’t familiar with North American geography? California and the Northeast Corridor are several thousand miles apart.

Seriously, it is really hard to come up with a rational explanation for this plan. The NEC is a 100-year-old legacy infrastructure, whereas the CHSRA is nearly a clean-sheet design. Why make California’s system backwards-compatible with a legacy rail system thousands of miles away?

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Trade Embargoes Lead to Shortages

Buy-America policies, a self-inflicted trade embargo, makes it very difficult for transit agencies to get rolling stock on the Global Market. Having no domestic passenger railcar industry doesn’t help either.

Case in point: Amtrak California. They have funds in hand, but it will take years to acquire new bi-level rolling stock. In the meantime, what can they do?

The idea of spending millions of dollars retrofitting cars from the 1960′s is absurd. Deacdes ago I rode those cars as a kid, and even back then they seemed antiquated.

I can think of only one historical analog: Cuba’s fleet of antique automobiles.

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Double Facepalm

Two years ago, when this blog criticized the CHSRA for its Amtrak-style practices, it was meant somewhat as a joke. Who knew they would actually go out and hire Amtrak’s Chief Engineer!?

Frank Vacca, the chief engineer of Amtrak, has been hired as chief program manager of the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
Mr. Vacca has over 35 years of experience in commuter, inter-city and high-speed passenger rail systems. “Frank Vacca is a highly recognized and respected executive in rail and will be a major asset in delivering high-speed rail to California in his new role as the Authority’s chief program manager,” says Jeff Morales, CEO of the Authority. “Frank’s expertise will help fulfill our ongoing commitment to partner with existing rail systems in building a statewide rail network.”

Mr. Vacca has a long and varied background in rail management, most recently as the chief engineer of Amtrak – a position he has held since 2006. He has held several other key positions with the national rail line. He was also the deputy general manager for infrastructure engineering at New Jersey Transit. In his role as chief program manager, Mr. Vacca will lead technical and engineering teams as they focus on delivering the high-speed rail project.

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The High Cost of Buy-America

The FRA is soliciting bids for a $551 million contract for 130 bi-level railcars. As a condition for the contract, the railcars must be manufactured entirely with American steel and components. If you do the math, that comes to 4.2 million dollars each – double the global market price for a bi-level car.

In other words, the FRA is pissing away a quarter billion dollars. Imagine all the projects that might have been done with $250 million. Imagine all the jobs that might have been created with that money. I’m talking real jobs — not bureaucrats enforcing Made-in-America rules. Jobs like installing new PTC signaling, repairing bridges, or expanding the transit network. You know, things that have tangible benefit to riders.

The really crazy thing is that there is a glut in the passenger railcar market. The last thing needed is yet another product (a hopelessly primitive one at that). And since few operators besides Amtrak will be interested in this railcar, a lot of design and development will just go to waste. And yet, the Commerce Dept. has delusions of making industrial policy:

And this morning, at the Next Generation Rail Supply Chain Forum in Kansas City, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo spoke about the importance of bringing rail equipment manufacturers and suppliers together so we can make these parts in America, too–helping support even more American jobs. The forum was held by the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a Department of Commerce partnership with DOT to help develop a robust domestic supply base to support our nation’s transportation infrastructure. It was a terrific opportunity to connect manufacturers of passenger rail and locomotives with potential suppliers so we can foster an all-American rail supply chain that produces quality goods and puts our friends and neighbors back to work.

Sorry, but the domestic passenger rail manufacturing is gone. And subsidizing obsolete FRA-compliant rolling stock isn’t the way to re-vitalize it.

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Amtrak Kills Streetcar Connector

Clueless Amtrak bureaucrats kill a DC Streetcar connector, in order to preserve ROW for an insane $100+ billion HSR vaporware project:

Back in April, the District Department of Transportation’s point man on streetcars, Scott Kubly, assured the denizens of H Street NE that they were still working with Amtrak to run the western end of the streetcar underneath the railroad tracks, creating a direct connection to Union Station and transit links to the rest of the city.

Not long after, however, Amtrak started saying “no,” citing a desire to preserve space for high-speed rail infrastructure in its long-range master plan—if it ever gets funded. Now, it looks like DDOT’s preferred option is dead, and with it the District’s hope of hitching the streetcar directly to Metro.

Plan “B” now is to dump streetcar passengers way out in a parking lot.

 

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