Faster trains top Amtrak’s list of needs

Amtrak has been working hard to lure more business travelers to its trains, with advertisements highlighting its advantages over air travel - roomier seats, power outlets on its Acela trains and fewer annoyances, the New York Times reports. And its efforts have borne some fruit: the number of riders on its Northeast corridor trains has been rising.

But faster trains are
critical to its future. So while Amtrak got some desperately needed financing
from the federal government this year, its forecasts suggest that speedier rail
travel in the United States remains a daunting challenge. For the Northeast
corridor alone, Amtrak estimates that it will need almost $700 million annually
for the next 15 years to maintain the system and to tackle a backlog of
maintenance projects and upgrades. Reducing travel times between New York and
Washington to two-and-a-half hours and times between New York and Boston to
three hours – goals that were established in the 1970s – will require
straighter track, improvements to bridges and tunnels, increased capacity
through Manhattan and newer trains, among other investments.

Almost all of Amtrak’s
lines fail to make money, with a total loss of $1.1 billion in 2008. Even
technology enhancements seem to move at a slow pace: developing a new
electronic reservation system is expected to take until 2015. Still, Amtrak
officials are more optimistic now than they have been in a long time. "We’re
probably in the best position to move forward to get the things done we want to
get done and that the government wants us to get done," said David Lim, Amtrak’s
chief marketing officer. "We have an administration that is supportive of rail."

One of the biggest changes
for Amtrak is that after years of bare-bones annual financing that limited the
railroad’s ability to make significant upgrades, Congress approved a five-year
authorization in 2008 that allocates the system nearly $2 billion a year. Although
the money still needs to be appropriated every year, Lim said, "the fact that
there’s a five-year plan makes a tremendous difference. Asking the government
for your annual subsidy obviously makes it difficult to plan and execute
capital projects."

In addition, the economic
stimulus package approved by Congress early this year provided $1.3 billion to
supplement Amtrak’s capital budget and $8 billion in grants for intercity
service and high-speed passenger rail. While those amounts will not go far in
developing the bullet trains that operate in Europe and Asia and will probably
be distributed among projects throughout the country, Amtrak officials say they
view the investment as an important policy shift.

There are also signs that
passengers are increasingly embracing trains. The number of Amtrak riders has
increased steadily since 2001, surpassing 28 million in 2008, though a dip is
expected this year because of the recession. Amtrak estimates it carried 63
percent of travelers flying or taking the train between New York and Washington
in 2008 – an increase from 37 percent before the Acela service began in 2000.
Amtrak’s market share between New York and Boston was 49 percent last year,
compared with 20 percent before Acela.

Amtrak hopes to push those
numbers even higher, Lim said. The railroad plans to introduce free Wi-Fi
service on all Acela trains in the second quarter of 2010, then add Northeast
regional trains later in the year.

The ability to work on the
train is one of the reasons Brian Silengo says he rides Amtrak for his weekly
trips to New York from Washington. He uses a cellular wireless card to get
Internet access, but as a sales executive for an interactive marketing agency,
he mostly values the Acela trains’ reliability.

"They’re very good at
getting you where you need to be on time," he said.

Although he said he would
like to see the trains travel at faster speeds, a more important item on his
Amtrak wish list is making the process for ticket changes and refunds easier. With
future improvements to the reservation system, Amtrak plans to allow customers
to make ticket changes online, and possibly allow passengers to print boarding
passes at home. Lim said the latter option is more challenging because
conductors would have to carry ticket scanners.

Another challenge for
Amtrak is to price its fares competitively, yet find a way to improve its
financial performance. An analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts’ project
Subsidyscope calculated that 41 of Amtrak’s 44 routes lost money last year. The
average loss was $32 a passenger, though the Acela Express line earned $41 a
passenger, suggesting that faster trains are crucial to profitability,
according to the data.

"The Acela, of course, is
the moneymaker," said Marcus Peacock, project director for Subsidyscope. "And
that’s the closest thing we have to high-speed rail right now."

Amtrak’s Acela fares
between New York and Washington range from $133 to $221 one-way, compared with
$49 to $139 for the slower Northeast regional train. Advance-purchase airfares
for the same route can be $150 roundtrip, an important consideration for
travelers.

"Our clients look at the
price," said Dave Kilduff, senior director of ground transportation for Carlson
Wagonlit Travel, a travel management company, though he added that service and
travel time are important, too, and that many travelers are surprised by their
experience with the train.

"Once they try it, they see
it’s much more pleasant than they expected," he said. "The faster they go, the
more people will get on them."

But to achieve those
speeds, and turn Amtrak’s blueprints into reality, some industry experts say
what is needed is a broader transportation strategy rather than separate
approaches to air, highway and rail travel.

"The United States doesn’t
really have an integrated transportation plan," said Robert L. Crandall, the
former chairman of the AMR Corporation, the parent of American Airlines. He
recently participated in a Transportation Department forum on the aviation
industry.

"What is needed is some
kind of overall plan, and it has to be done by the government," he said.