Alan S. Boyd, First Transportation Secretary, 98
Alan S. Boyd, the nation’s first transportation secretary, has died at 98.
Alan S. Boyd, the nation’s first transportation secretary, has died at 98.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) has introduced legislation requiring a transfer of ownership of Amtrak’s Keystone East Line and some of its 12 stations to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Under the Keystone Line for the Commonwealth Act, the line between Harrisburg, Pa., and Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station would be managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).
Amtrak, updating its forecast for fiscal year 2021, anticipates needing up to $4.857 billion to support the company and employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, as Congress considers programs for stimulating the economy, Amtrak has identified $5.193 billion in additional need as part of an economic recovery proposal to help the nation recover from the impacts of the pandemic. The combined requests total $10.050 billion.
Thus far in this series, we have focused on the narrow issue of Amtrak’s service reduction from daily to three-times-a-week on its entire long-distance train network. We discussed costs, ideology, Amtrak’s impossible demands for restoring daily service, and what Congress can do to prevent the harm that Amtrak management is inflicting on the riding public and their communities.
On May 24, Amtrak President William J. Flynn wrote to Vice President Michael Pence (in his capacity as President of the Senate) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, demanding a supplemental appropriation of $1.475 billion, and threatening to cut service on every long-distance (L-D) train (except the Auto Train, which is only available for travelers with a motor vehicle) from daily operation to only three departures per week. Most of the reductions are in place as of this Oct. 5 posting, although Amtrak cut service between New York and Florida in half on July 6.
Amtrak and Metra have begun work on a combined $29 million construction project to upgrade the Homewood, Ill., passenger rail station. It is slated for completion in spring 2022.
Amtrak is poised to implement the most far-reaching service reductions in its history, Oct. 1. Every long-distance (L-D) train that currently runs every day will be lose more than half of its departures; reduced to running only three times per week. In the past, Amtrak reduced operation of some trains to three or four days a week, the most notable being the infamous Mercer Management cuts of the mid-1990s, which proved that cutting service increased costs by a greater amount than it saved. In other words, restricting the choice of travel days not only inconvenienced customers, but also cost Amtrak more. Despite that experience, Amtrak is about to reduce service on every L-D train, except for the Auto-Train, by 57%.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced that it is distributing $320.6 million to 50 projects that improve the safety, efficiency and reliability of freight rail and intercity passenger service in 29 states.
Time is running out for daily operation of Amtrak’s long-distance trains. It could also be running out for the very concept that a train could provide reliable transportation between far-flung communities every day, with same-day connections to other trains, at least in this country. With various exceptions, this has been the basis of Amtrak’s long-distance train network for the first 49 years and five months of its corporate existence, as well as for nearly 140 years before Amtrak began operations in 1971.
Amtrak has built a more disciplined process to plan and coordinate major track outages, including those along the Northeast Corridor, but more steps could be taken to reduce service disruptions and maximize the amount of time it has access to tracks, Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General found in a report released Sept. 16.