During remarks to the Amtrak Board of Directors last week, CEO Stephen Gardner gave an upbeat view of Amtrak’s future that he then qualified with numerous caveats that suggested expansion of the Amtrak network is still far away.
The board met in St. Louis and heard top Amtrak managers give a snapshot of where the passenger carrier is, which is recovery mode from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ridership is at 85 percent of pre-pandemic levels with 22.9 million passengers handled during fiscal year 2022, which ended on Sept. 30.
Revenue of $2.8 billion was down 15 percent compared with fiscal year 2019.
In the past year fares have been higher and Amtrak’s capacity has been lower due to equipment that was idled during the pandemic still not being available for revenue service due to shortages of mechanical workers and funding.
During fiscal year 2022, Amtrak operated 80 percent of its pre-pandemic schedule.
As for expansion, Amtrak in 2021 released its Connect U.S. plan that called for new intercity rail passenger service to 160 communities.
Funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was expected to be a major down payment on that plan.
“We’re entering a new [era] . . . for passenger rail in America, and Amtrak’s future could never be brighter,” Gardner said.
But then Gardner began issuing his list of caveats. Topping the list is that it will take longer to get new routes up and running than some rail passenger advocates would like.
Just two new routes began in FY2022 and both of those were in the development stage before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although new service between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, was mentioned along with development of a corridor between Richmond, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, no timeline for implementation of those services was provided.
Another key caveat is the network expansion hinges on state and local government financial support.
Gardner noted during his presentation that state and federal financial support is key to new service because the influx of funding made available by the IIJA mandates that just 80 percent of the cost to develop a new service can be provided by the federal government.
“Amtrak is not a unitary actor,” he said. “We cannot tomorrow say ‘we want to stop here and issue an edict.’”
Amtrak Board Chairman Anthony Coscia said later, “There is a meaningful difference between states in terms of their ability to be supportive of passenger rail.”
Amtrak already appears to be pulling back on its ambitious Connects U.S. project.
Executive Vice President Dennis Newman introduced a new map that showed “expressions of interest” that reflects potential new service where there has been significant state and local interest.
This includes a new train between Fargo, North Dakota, and Spokane, Washington, which would mirror the former Chicago-Seattle North Coast Hiawatha that was discontinued in early October 1979.
Also on the map is proposed service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, proposed service between Salt Lake City and Boise, Idaho, and a Dallas section of the New York-New Orleans Crescent.
The Las Vegas and Boise service proposals would revive other former routes of the Desert Wind and the Pioneer, respectively.
During the question and answer session of the meeting, Gardner said Amtrak can’t expand long-distance routes without additional funding from the federal government.
Aside from the open question of whether Congress would agree to provide that funding, long-distance network expansion is hamstrung by equipment shortages that have reduced the capacity of existing trains.
In response to an audience member question, Gardner said some stored equipment that is no longer commercially viable is being used as a parts supply.
“We also have to analyze the dollars available,” he said and then added that additional capital is needed to put equipment back into service.
For now, Garnder said Amtrak is seeking to get more equipment back into service “just to catch up on overhauls and maintain the current fleet.”
Although the audience member was asking about Superliners, Amtrak has found itself short of equipment for corridor services because many of the 60 Venture cars it had expected to be in service this year remain sidelined by production issues and quality control matters.
Instead, Amtrak has only been able to use about 30 of the Venture cars.
New equipment that Amtrak had expected to use for its Acela service in the Northeast Corridor remains on the sidelines. Gardner said that equipment is not expected to begin revenue service until late 2023, which is two years later than originally projected.
New equipment that Amtrak plans to order for Northeast Regional service in the Northeast Corridor won’t be available until 2026 at the earliest.
“There is not an off-the-shelf product, in most cases, that is available,” Gardner said when speaking about equipment issues. “We don’t have the domestic supply base.”
How IIJA’s Rail Funding is Being Allocated
November 14, 2021Second in a three-part series
If you’ve ridden an Amtrak long-distance train lately, you know why the passenger carrier could use some new equipment.
It will take awhile but new equipment to replace the Superliners, the first of which entered revenue service in 1979, may be on the way thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
IIJA is a way for Amtrak to capture capital funding it has coveted for years but been unable to get approved by Congress.
Much of the $66 billion for rail in the IIJA will be used to rebuild existing infrastructure and buy new equipment to replace passenger cars and locomotives that are long in the tooth.
As for how the money in the IIJA for rail will be divided, the Northeast Corridor gets $30 billion with $6 billion going directly to Amtrak and $24 billion being funneled through the Federal Railroad Administration for federal-state partnership grants.
Amtrak’s priorities for this funding include replacement of the Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River in New Jersey; construction of new tunnels under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City; rehabilitating a tunnel under the East River in New York City; replacing the B&P Tunnel in Baltimore; and planning to rebuild or replace bridges over the Susquehanna and Connecticut rivers.
The national network gets $28 billion of which $16 billion goes directly to Amtrak and $12 billion to FRA federal-state partnership grants.
Aside from buying new equipment, this funding will be used for infrastructure work on select national network routes, including Amtrak maintenance facilities and passenger stations.
Much of the latter involves bringing stations up to date in meeting standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant program gets $5 billion but this money is not restricted solely to passenger rail projects.
The FRA’s grade crossing elimination program gets $3 billion, which can be used for Amtrak-owned lines, such as the one in Michigan, or for freight and commuter rail lines.
The bill reserves $50 million for an FRA Restoration and Enhancement Grants program, which is the funding mechanism for new service on routes Amtrak does not now serve.
There is also $15 million set aside for the FRA to conduct a study of routes operated “less often” – think the Cardinal and Sunset Limited – as well as restoration of previously discontinued long-distance routes or new long-distance routes.
All that is guaranteed to happen is the FRA will conduct a study that might recommend changing tri-weekly trains to daily operation,
The FRA study might recommend adding new long-distance routes or restoring trains that vanished decades ago such as the North Coast Hiawatha, Lone Star or Broadway Limited.
It will be up to Congress to appropriate the money to pay for those trains and Amtrak would need to negotiate operating agreements with the host railroads.
It will be years before the potential of the IIJA is fully realized.
Amtrak is in the very early stages of designing new cars to replace the Superliner fleet.
Even when new cars and locomotives roll off the factory floor it can be months before they begin revenue service.
The new Siemens Venture cars to be used in Midwest corridor services have yet to begin revenue service despite having been on the property for months.
The first new Siemens ALC-42 Charger locomotives are still undergoing testing. For that matter Amtrak has yet to put into revenue service all of the Viewliner II equipment it has.
Many of the improvements the money from the IIJA is expected to pay for will occur behind the scenes, such as modernizing the reservation system.
As has been demonstrated many times during Amtrak’s 50-year history, the wheels of change turn slowly and sometimes they don’t turn at all.
A host of obstacles lie in the path of new and improved rail service over which Amtrak and the Biden administration little to no control.
These have the potential to thwart new services and even reduce the effectiveness of the IIJA.
Next: The challenges facing passenger rail will dictate how transformative the IIJA turns out to be.
Tags:Amtrak, Amtrak capital spending, Amtrak funding, Amtrak rolling stock, Amtrak Superliners, commentaries on transportation, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, On Transportation, posts on transportation
Posted in On Transportation | Leave a Comment »