Is it Time to Properly Fund Passenger Rail in the United States?
Tue, Jun 3, 2008
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Passenger Rail service was once a booming industry in the United States and was the main revenue source that spurred the rapid growth of rail transport throughout the late 18th Century and early 19th Century. However, as the price of cheap fuel and the birth of the automobile arrived, the use of passenger rail slowly faded away. During the 1960s, cheap airfare further helped to kill the inter-city rail services that were offered and eventually the once profitable business was a money pit for railroads. Between 1946 and 1964, the annual number of passengers declined from 770 to 298 million. Passenger rail service in the United States showed the signs of underinvestment as rail facilities suffered from decrepit equipment, cavernous and nearly empty stations in dangerous urban centers, and management that seemed intent on driving away the few remaining customers. The 1960s also saw the end of railway post office revenues, which had helped some of the remaining trains break even.
During the years of the First World War, cars were more attainable for Americans – that over-time replaced the need for commuter services and intra-city mass transit. While rail travel was able to survive this era with the dawn of WWII in the 1940s, it once again faced a new type of competition. Commercial aviation was supported at many levels by the government in creating sprawling airports, provided subsidies to build terminals and funded construction for highways to lead to the airports and to other cities.
Rail travel in the United States seemed destined for disaster. That was until 1970, when the Rail Passenger Service Act was signed by President Nixon. Legislators created the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, which allowed any passenger rail company to contract with the corporation to join the system. This helped burden the huge cost of operating passenger rail service in the United States. Notwithstanding this, it created several problems that still haven’t been addressed today.
Original Passenger Car for Amtrak in 1968.
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Currently, Amtrak operates passenger services on 21,000 miles of track and connects to 500 destinations in 46 states. In fiscal year of 2006, Amtrak served 24.3 million passengers; a company record. According to estimates for the fiscal year 2007, Amtrak has served over the 25 million passenger mark, a 6% increase from the previous year. Projections show that in 2008, Amtrak could serve as many as 27 million passengers. Unfortunately, this total is only a faction of the 660 million passengers that flew on airplanes in 2006 in the United States.
So what’s holding back passenger rail service in the States? The largest issue for travelers is the delays. In an era where travelers hate delays, railroads in the US are the worst. Amtrak only has an on time performance rating of 74% in comparison to 82% with commercial aviation. You may ask, “How can service be delayed when they don’t have to contend with weather, security and maintenance issues like the airlines do?”
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June 3rd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
We were just discussing this – in a roundabout sorta way – yesterday when the topic of high fuel costs came up yet again. One of the guys mentioned that Europeans have been dealing with much higher gas prices for a very long time. I made the comment that in most European countries, they have excellent rail systems to help offset that problem. Not only are the trains there reported to be very cost-efficient, but punctual as well.
I do think we need to revisit this as a partial solution here in the U.S. We do need to expand our long-distance mass transit options. The infrastructure is already in place, so why not make use of this ignored resource?
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
There is one other thing you didn’t mention… the cost of tickets. The train easily costs *more* than flying, especially if you get a sleeper cab. Even coach is often the same or more than an equivalent air ticket.
I agree that rail in the US is in a sad state. I’d rather see a solution that lets the free market invest in infrastructure rather than taxpayer money though. Socialism of the rails got us into this mess, I don’t see how more socialism is the answer for getting us out.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Actually the infrastructure is already in place, but as the story mentions it’s just completely outdated. Our whole rail infrastructure needs to be double tracked so that Amtrak and Freight carriers don’t have to suffer from the delays that currently hamper their business.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Our country should of planned for this a LOOOONG time ago, not now .. it’s almost too late! Here in the Northwest, they want to FINALLY build a light rail .. but it’s going to cost way too much. Our politicians always tell us one cost, but then go WAAAAY OVER Budget by Millions of dollars, then usually can the idea, because it’s costing too much money and we’re always stuck with unfinished projects .. *COUGH* our stadiums … and monorail… no more needs to be said.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Agreed! It costs more to ride the train, than it does the airlines .. with a sleep cab. I don’t want to see the price tag of the tickets. Here in the NorthWest, our politicans give us a price tag on a project, than triple the cost (AFTER they’ve begun), then they like to CANCEL the projects *COUGH* monorail, and our stadiums.. leaving us with unfinished projects to pay for! Our Government should of planned for this a LONG TIME AGO!
June 5th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
We had one or more in Ohio, especially the east west line back in the late 1800s-early 1900s, but the cars came and they decided to do way with the rail. The mounds from underneath the old rail can still be seen in some places.
No the talk is to restart a rail service, but the funds are not there yet.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
We need to replace rail passenger service and freight completely with something like a scaled-up “personal rapid transit” system. You should be able to drive your car to a rail port and onto a platform with a set of wheels. Using a console inside your car, you should indicate your destination, push a button and then relax till you get there. Driverless loads, each separatly targeted to their individual destination should be continuously tracked by the owner. There should be many variations of design for the vehicles, but only one common track design. Such a system could replace 100% of current rail service, 60% of air transport, and 90% of long-distance automobile traffic. Rental cars that run directly on the track, privately owned motor homes, platforms for private cars without rail-compatible wheels and rental hotel rooms with a garage for the car should all be run on the same tracks, intermingled with freight.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
The potentially fatal limitation of the current rail transport system is the fact that all the cars in a train are required to go to one destination.
Imagine if this limitation were applied to the trucking industry. There would be convoy organizers in convoy assembly yards telling truck drivers which convoy to join. Every few minutes a convoy would be off to a destination that would satisfy only a small minority of the drivers. We can all agree that this is absurd, but regularly tolerate this limitation in rail service.
Flexibility is the key to popularity. Public acceptance is the key to a self-supporting, prosperous future for the rail industry. Every vehicle must be able to go to its unique destination without any limitations from adjacent vehicles.
We don’t need high speed trains or magnetic levitation. They are solutions to problems of little importance. They are simply ways of doing it wrong at a higher rate of speed.
We need reconceptualization for the purpose of flexible operation. We need to start over fresh with a new computer-compatible transportation concept. Connected rail cars only made sense until computer control became available. Now it does not.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:20 am
Amen! Recreating reliable and cost effective passenger rail in the USA is long overdue. Europe, South Korea, Japan and China are in the forefront of today’s developments for urban light rail, high speed electric, bullet trains etc. India, with a huge population and enormous transport challenges has an effective nation wide electric rail system. Ditto for Russia. The United States does not need to reinvent the wheel. It does need to stop, look, listen and integrate the best that other countries have deployed into a new approach for the nation’s passenger rail service.
This page has good links to light rail, high speed electric RR, bullet trains and Maglev in Europe and Asia – http://www.ahrtp.com/HallofFameOnline1/EarlyRRLinks2.htm