Tackling the Headlines 75

Passenger train service between Ann Arbor and Traverse City being discussed
Take: Should the study get the green light, the shortline operator should be tapped to run trains along the route.

Study to extend Keystone Service to Pittsburgh
There's a lively debate over at Trainorders concerning the cost.

Take: It is ridiculous that it should come anywhere close to $1 billion let alone $10 billion to just produce additional frequencies especially when host Norfolk Southern concluded a decade ago that it would only cost $140 million for two additional frequencies. One has to wonder what the previous administration in Harrisburg was up to with the extremely high cost of that feasibility study.

Oklahoma’s Amtrak service facing funding shortfall
Take: Uh, what happened to the state and Texas possibly contracting this route to another operator? The hosts only want Amtrak on their rails argument is being used by a copout by Oklahoma.

Tackling the Headlines 73

Via Rail eyeing private capital to build its own dedicated rail lines
Take: Well, after almost four decades, Canada's operator is actually showing a sign of progress.

From tomorrow on, high-speed rail will take you from Shanghai to Guangzhou in 7 hours!
Take: Thirty-two routes? Meanwhile, it seemingly takes an eternity for just one conventional rail line to be launched on this side of the Pacific.

Trains, buses and automobiles: Passenger rail coming next year
Take: The ball's in the FRA's court now.

Friends of the Eastern Flyer updates

It's good news-bad news in the Sooner State:

The good

The OK DOT selected Watco to operate the Oklahoma City-Tulsa rail line last month. As a result, Iowa Pacific will provide train service between the two areas, possibly as early as November. Initially, there will be shuttle buses that will serve the two cities, but actual train service to OKC and the capital could happen if the pilot project is successful.

The bad

The Tulsa-OKC study continues to be evaluated. It seems as if the state is determined to commit death by feasibility study for this particular corridor, which shouldn't take two years to complete.

Tackling the Headlines 61

FL governor to fund Orlando airport intermodal station

Take: It's a change from his stance three years ago. Of course, he's also funding the terminal because he has taken a lot of beating for being more fixated on roads than rail. Whatever the case, this is nothing but a huge plus.

A couple of news items from Oklahoma 

The OK DOT has reduced the number of bidders for the Oklahoma City-Tulsa rail line from four to two: Watco-owned Stillwater Central Railroad and previous owner BNSF. At the same time, Iowa Pacific has laid down the gambit by providing a concrete plan to operate passenger service in a letter to Governor Mary Fallin even though his company missed the final cut.

Take: The ball is your court, Oklahoma. Neither the governor nor the DOT can now say that "no one will ride the the train" because ample evidence has been provided to the contrary. If that line is uttered, then, it's a clear signal on how anti-rail the state really is.

Hawaii rail project clears final hurdle

Take: The 50th state will soon have regularly scheduled rail service, which is really good news for all.

Group wants return of passenger rail, others have doubts

Take: Given that South Carolina is a "small government" state, it would be in the advocates' best interest to also talk to other passenger operators via a competitive bidding process in order to hold down costs.

About that Germany-UK service...

Delivery delays have now led to Deutsche Bahn to put the Frankfurt-London service on hold while it focuses on providing services to Brussels and Paris instead.

Take: This is a major blow to the EU's plans to open up the rails to international travel.

Nutmeg State's Central Corridor

It's almost TIGER time again, so Eastern Connecticut leaders have made a full-court press by getting Congressman Joe Courtney to lobby the feds to get funding for the Central Corridor this year.

Take: Now, the other pols in the area need to get onboard. After all, the clock is ticking for passengers in Amherst who currently take the Vermonter.

A pivotal moment for Oklahoma

Last week, the state of Oklahoma officially put up the 97.5 miles of rail line it owns for sale and received bids from four companies:

1. BNSF, from whom the state bought the line in 1998
2. Watco Companies, which has trackage rights on parts of the route 
3. Iowa Pacific Holdings, which is jointly operating the Eastern Flyer with Watco-owned Stillwater Central Railroad 
4. Fortress Incorporated, owner of All Aboard Florida and Florida East Coast 

The Eastern Flyer sold out at the end of last year and is scheduled to make two more roundtrips between the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas this month following Sunday's inaugural run. The state would be crazy to jeopardize the possibility of private entities running passenger trains

Some reports quote groups who have suggested that the private effort is somehow an affront to plans of extending the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Wichita via Newton, KS. There is no need for the zero-sum mentality has to stop because there's no reason why the Heartland Flyer couldn't coexist with the Eastern Flyer one bit. How the state is willing to sell the line by April or May yet not be done with a separate feasibility study for Oklahoma City-Tulsa route until mid 2015 is perplexing to me.

Tackling the Headlines 59

Increased Boston-to-Springfield passenger rail service may one day become a reality

Take: It would have helped if a) Amtrak hadn't eliminated its last Boston-based Inland route over nine years ago and b) if a second Albany-Boston frequency were already in place.

Troubling news out of Oklahoma

Apparently, the executive branch in Tulsa is dead set on making a fool out of me and anyone else who would like to see more private involvement in passenger rail. Even though trips for three Sapulpa-Oklahoma City runs are sold out, the efforts by Iowa Pacific and Stillwater Central to provide regular service may be for naught as the OKDOT wants to sell part of a state-owned route between the the two cities.

Take: If Oklahoma officials sell the line to BNSF and Wescott's worst nightmare comes to pass, then, it'll show how tome deaf the state really is.

Officials Discussing Texas-Mexico High-Speed Rail Line

Take: How about a regular, conventional route first?

Random thoughts #10

1. The news out of Ohio is not surprising given who's in office. Yawn. Moving on. There's nothing to see here. Get back to me in 2019.
2. This Vancouver Sun article reminds me of people here in the States who want Amtrak to focus on only the Northeast Corridor. Both thoughts are preposterous. Furthermore, the writer has ties to the Rocky Mountaineer. Long distance travel should not be limited to the ultra wealthy.
3. The state of Oklahoma is about to make a grand mistake and thwart any private effort to launch intercity rail service. 

The Year In Review--2012

1. Over the summer, passenger rail nearly took a massive step backwards until three toxic pieces of legislation were kept out of the final transportation bill. 

The deadliest of the three was Section 35601, which would have forced all non-Amtrak operators to be licensed by the Surface Transportation Board. Had the provision become law, it would have so disproportionately tilted the playing field in favor of Amtrak that it would have made the carrier once again a legislated monopoly. 

The September issue of Railfan & Railroad magazine outed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the architect of the competition-killing licensing provision. Meanwhile, Senator Dick Durbin came up with Section 35207 as a supposed reaction to Representatives John Mica and Bill Shuster's failed attempt to hand the Northeast Corridor over to the USDOT. State DOTs were also upset about Section 35105, which would have let Amtrak control where newly built passenger cars built by states would go. The idea of Amtrak shuffling California Cars to the Southeast (and NC's renovated Heritage Cars [that Amtrak couldn't wait to get rid of] to the Midwest) shows how out of touch the company is because it's been slow to develop new cars on its own.

Prior to Frailey's first posting, NARP was the only group who even bothered weighing in on the three measures, and disappointingly, they supported the licensing provision. The silence from most of the rail community was deafening--and something that I will address in my next post.

All three provisions were nothing more than power grabs by Amtrak and its allies on Capitol Hill because the carrier has recently lost commuter contracts to other operators (there are also unsubstantiated rumors that the possibility of another company running the planned Chicago-Quad Cities-Omaha route was the real culprit for the three provisions). Rather than let Amtrak face competition, some Congresscritters are blindly wedded to a company that has told non-NEC states that they're mostly on their own. As a result, I commend Mica for preventing Amtrak from gaining an unfair advantage when it can probably let a few routes be operated by someone else.

2. The state of Oklahoma's negotiations with BNSF should be a template--maybe, even the template--of what other states should be doing in regards to PRIIA Section 209.

Instead of just bellyaching over how Amtrak service will come to an end next October, the states outside of the Northeast Corridor need to do their duty and find a carrier that can provide top level passenger service at the lowest cost possible since many of them are still struggling to balance their budgets. 

The Tulsa City Council's Advisory Committee was initially worried (go to pages 10-12) that BNSF would only allow Amtrak to operate the route since the Class I railroad owns the tracks between Sapulpa and the state capital. The committee did its homework by contacting the AIPRO, and one operator was ecstatic about the possibility of running trains there.

As long as passenger operators are allowed to compete on a level playing field, states will be able to fairly weigh the costs of operating a new route or adding frequencies on existing ones by more than one company. In 2009, Amtrak was criticized by some in the rail community for providing extremely high costs to run new service in places like Ohio. The national carrier should be on notice that if its costs are too high, states may turn to somebody who could run the trains at a lower cost (Tulsa got a lower estimate from the AIPRO member). 

The Year In Review Part 4

6. The group (alongside the Cascadia Center) that first blasted Amtrak's 2009 report on reviving the Pioneer has hired an assistant professor from Mississippi State to do an independent analysis on the Pioneer's potential.

7. A study that would provide train service between Oklahoma City and Kansas City is blasted by an advocacy group in the southern Plains.

8. The city of Tallahassee has come out in favor of restoring Amtrak service to their city.

The aforementioned stories are all tied in together because these communities demonstrate that they want passenger service more than Amtrak is willing to give them. The residents and others along the Pioneer route have been the most proactive. The PRO and the Cascadia Center have provided their own solutions (an honorable mention goes to the people who live along the North Coast Hiawatha route).

What is interesting about the OKC-KC route restoration is that the group blasting Amtrak is leader who has at times been aligned with True Believers. It's bad for Amtrak when this group starts calling the railroad out on the study that discourages new service.

Florida, alongside Ohio, is the exact opposite of the West because it hasn't done anything to counter any flawed information that the carrier may have provided. Also, Representative Corrine Brown didn't help when she (through her spokesman) bought the line that other states would have to pay up to revive the missing link of the Sunset Limited. That is not true nor should it be allowed since the Sunset Limited is a national route. Residents along the Gulf Coast should be looking at private operators who could provide connecting service between New Orleans and Orlando. A new operator could not only rebuild the stations along the route, but it could also staff each and every one of them--something Amtrak didn't always do (only Pensacola was staffed between New Orleans and Jacksonville in 2005 as Tallahassee and Mobile had lost their agents)--not to mention, provide the building blocks to transform Jacksonville Union Terminal and the planned SunRail LYNX Station into real transportation hubs (I am assuming that Amtrak leadership would keep the new operator out of the Clifford Road and Sligh Boulevard locations).