March 1, 2005
Riding the rails may be romantic, but Amtrak-executive-turned-travel-writer Joseph Vranich says there's no romance at all in riding Amtrak trains, only massive waste. Vranich, who once was paid to promote Amtrak as a public affairs spokesman, now declares Amtrak the least efficient North American railroad.
"Amtrak remains just one more government bailout away from bankruptcy even though federal and state subsidies are ballooning way beyond reason," said Vranich. "Amtrak's costs are enormously disproportionate to its meager traffic and the railroad refuses to implement true reforms."
Vranich, author of "End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains," says Amtrak's heavy losses stem from preserving routes through as many Congressional districts as possible no matter how poorly the trains are patronized.
He charges many states have fewer than 100 passengers a day boarding Amtrak, with the "pork-barrel" trains soaking up resources needed for intercity trains between Boston, New York and Washington, where almost half of Amtrak's traffic is concentrated.
"Every member of Congress from the Northeast should work to eliminate Amtrak's grip on non-Amtrak commuter trains like the Long Island Rail Road. If they vote to preserve Amtrak, they are voting against their big commuter constituencies," Vranich said.
Congress is all too quick to grant additional funding when Amtrak warns of recurring financial "shortfalls" and threatens national shutdowns. A shutdown, says Vranich, would also halt non-Amtrak commuter trains, which carry 412 million riders annually -- far more than Amtrak carries. Thus Congress, and commuters, remain hostages.
"Public officials who support commuters in the Connecticut-New York-New Jersey complex, or in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., should replace Amtrak as owner of the Northeast's rail line with an independent, regional agency," he said.
Another reason Amtrak's market share is the lowest in history, says the author, is the preservation of long distance routes that can no longer compete with air travel. "Amtrak-style overnight passenger trains are in decline throughout the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and the rest of the world," Vranich said. "Taxpayer dollars shouldn't be paying for nostalgia in the U.S."
