The sky is falling, the sky is falling.
Or so some railroad enthusiasts would have you believe in the wake of a report that Amtrak has decided to ban charters and special moves.
The policy change was announced by Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson in a memo to employees that was leaked to Trains magazine and also posted on railfan chat lists.
In tandem with that, owners of private passenger cars are reporting that Amtrak has been rejecting many requests to move passenger cars.
This particularly has affected car owners who store their cars in the middle of a route because Amtrak has decreed that it will not accept a private car at a station in which the scheduled dwell time is less than 30 minutes.
The implications of this policy change are, indeed, ominous.
It means that such longstanding traditions as the fall New River Train in West Virginia will end.
It means no more Amtrak fall foliage, railfan or rare mileage specials.
It means mainline steam moves are in jeopardy because they operate in cooperation with Amtrak and its liability insurance and use private passenger cars ferried by Amtrak.
It means private car owners who have sunk thousands of dollars into making and/or keeping their cars Amtrak compatible have few, if any, options to run their cars. Seeing a private passenger car or two on the back of an Amtrak train will become an even rarer sight.
Two groups representing private car owners, the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, and the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance have urged their members to contact public officials and opinion leaders to protest the policy change.
It is unclear how much effect that lobbying will have. Owning and operating a private railroad car is a rich man’s game.
Because they tend to be affluent, private car owners might have better political connections than the typical railroad enthusiast or passenger train advocate.
But it is unlikely that public officials will view the Amtrak policy change as a pressing matter of public interest.
Some might see it as rich boys throwing a tantrum because they can’t play with their toys.
Some passenger advocates have applauded Amtrak, which has sought to frame the change as an effort to improve the on-time performance of its trains.
Anderson’s memo referenced trains being delayed due to switching cars and described special moves as a distraction.
He also suggested that specials and hauling private cars hasn’t been all that profitable, but the memo was clumsily worded on this point.
When he wrote that the moves “failed to capture fully allocated profitable margins,” I wonder if he really meant “failed to cover their fully allocated costs.”
The latter was a term railroads used a lot in the 1960s when they wanted to discontinue passenger trains. Using that standard could make a train appear to be losing far more money than the “above the rail” standard which meant that a train earned enough revenue to cover its direct costs.
Some of what Anderson said in his memo few people would dispute. Who would be opposed to Amtrak running on time, operating safely, having clean passenger cars, providing friendly service and offering “great customer-facing technology?” Anderson would have you believe that running special trains are hindering Amtrak’s efforts to do those things.
There is likely more behind this policy change even if Anderson’s memo hints at what that might be when it speaks of focusing on Amtrak’s core mission.
Amid all of the chaff that I read on railfan chat list about the policy change was a thoughtful observation by someone who has seen Anderson use this playbook before.
The poster contended that when Anderson was CEO of Northwest Airlines, it was struggling financially and he discontinued most of the charter flights.
Northwest was devoting seven aircraft to this service, which accommodated professional sports teams among others. Anderson apparently feared that the liability if one of those charters had a catastrophe might wreck the airline.
But the move didn’t turn out to be permanent. After Anderson felt he had sufficiently turned things around the charters returned.
Northwest was later acquired by Delta Air Line, which Anderson also headed. Today Delta is one of the most prominent operators of charter flights for professional sports teams.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, for example, are a regular customer as are many NBA teams.
So the Amtrak policy change might not be permanent, although you never know. One of the first moves that former Amtrak president David Gunn made after taking office was to get the passenger carrier out of the business of hauling mail and express.
Gunn used some of the same arguments that Anderson made to justify banning special moves and charters.
That was more than a decade ago and Amtrak trains still don’t carry any mail. It sold its fleet of express cars.
Anderson may have philosophical reasons for banning special move, believing that Amtrak needs to do more to focus on its core mission.
Yet it is not clear if ending special moves was even his idea. He might have heard from field-level supervisors who have always disliked having to do something that is a non-standard operation.
And Anderson must answer to a board of directors and we don’t know what “direction” they have given him.
There is some thought that Class 1 railroads will follow Amtrak’s lead and impose even more stringent standards on the movement of passenger cars and passenger trains.
We’ve seen how the Wheeling & Lake Erie has banned all excursion trains and with a few limited exceptions won’t move passenger cars in ferry moves.
But I’m reminded of something that W&LE chief Larry Parsons said when I interviewed him for an article I did several years ago for Trains magazine.
The Wheeling had just lost some iron ore traffic and in asking him about it I used the word “forever” as in the business was lost forever.
Parsons responded that “forever is a very long time.”
Management changes and so do situations. People change their minds about how they view things. Some have described the Amtrak policy change as a work in progress and we haven’t heard the last word on the new policy.
Anderson’s memo left an opening for some special moves if they meet the railroad’s strategic goals. Those can be defined broadly or defined narrowly.
We are entering an era in which special moves and mainline steam will be rarer than they are now. But not necessarily nonexistent. Forever is, after all, a very long time.
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