Riding the Western Rails May Be a Comfortable Route to Extinction

Train travel may be more comfortable and more affordable to more Americans today than at any other time in the rich history of the railroads in the United States.

And therein may lie its doom.

Relaxing in the observation car of the westbound California Zephyr in the Sierra Nevada on a sparkling February day, it suddenly occurs to the traveler that Amtrak has been a huge success in providing scenic, pleasant, safe transportation.

The debate rages about the cost of maintaining passenger rail travel in the United States. The Reagan Administration cites comparative prices of airline tickets and claims Amtrak is a boondoggle serving a relatively small number of affluent Americans; Amtrak fans respond that ridership is growing and that the subsidy has been cut by $400 million; they point to federal support for airports and highways.

The numbers game seems never-ending and overlooks what may be a central question: Just what is it like to travel on a train these days? On this particular Thursday in February, I find that the swiveling seats on the upper deck of the Amfleet lounge car are roomy and soft. There is more than ample leg room. Sipping a Bloody Mary or coffee, passengers gaze out on a spectacular winter scene. As much as four feet of snow has fallen here at 7,000 feet within the past 24 hours; the effect is dazzling. Evergreens sag under their virgin snow cloaks. The splash of a small creek sparkles in the mid-morning sun. It is ghostly quiet except for the oohs and aahs of the riders. There is no sound from the two 3,000-horsepower diesel-electric locomotives up ahead except for the faint occasional bleating of the horn. There is no clickity-clack of wheels against rails. The loudest sound, in fact, is the slight whish of the air conditioning.

The scene is so splendid and benign, few of the passengers who fill almost every seat bother to comment on the gruesome fate of the Donner party in these mountains 140 years ago. When they do, they speak in virtual whispers--and they can be heard.

If I tire of the scene, I can go downstairs for a refill of coffee from Gaylord, the steward who cheerily promotes his sandwiches, drinks and Amtrak souvenir playing cards over the speaker system. In the lounge, five men who boarded in Reno concentrate on pitching quarters into the pot of a high-low poker game.

Lunch service starts in the dining car at 11:30 a.m. Or I can return to the privacy of my economy compartment in the lower deck of the sleeping car for a nap, to read a book, write a letter or just gaze out at the passing panorama.

There is nothing to complain about. Last night the Zephyr, Train No. 5, left Salt Lake City on time at 11 p.m. Mountain Time. Later this afternoon, it would arrive in Oakland at 3:26 p.m. Pacific Time, four minutes early. The compartment is small, but clean and comfortable. The attendants are pleasant and ready to be of assistance. When I bought my Salt Lake-Oakland ticket, the clerk said, “Oh, it’s too bad you couldn’t start in Denver and see the Rockies, too.”

Elegant dining is the singular missing element of yore. The tables are spread with a swath of plastic that tries to resemble linen, but doesn’t. Silverware is stainless. Napkins are paper. The china is plastic and so is the yellow rose in the little vase by the window. The menu is limited and this is the single major complaint of people who have been on the train since they boarded in Chicago Tuesday afternoon. Still, the food is acceptable and moderate in price. The most expensive dinner item is grilled New York strip steak, served with mushroom caps and baked potato at $10.50. A reasonable breakfast is $3.25; lunch, $4.50.

Amtrak is experimenting with first-class dining on some runs, but that in itself will not tip the budget balance toward survival or extinction.

The grand passenger trains of the past--the Zephyr, the Lark, the Super Chief, Empire Builder, North Coast Limited, Twentieth-Century Limited--died of deliberate neglect. Their operators could not compete with the airlines and did not want to. Congress, convinced that rail travel was not yet ready for extinction, created the National Railroad Passenger Corp. in 1970 and subsidized the carrier so that acceptable service could be restored.

It has been--but at great cost. The nation has invested as much as $10 billion in Amtrak service and facilities since 1970. Yearly subsidies now run about $650 million. We cannot afford that, says the Reagan Administration, and the subsidy must end. If it does, Amtrak dies, except perhaps for some of the most traveled lines along the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington and between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Today, Amtrak labors to compete economically with the air and bus lines and can’t. The more it improves service to lure riders, the greater grows the subsidy. The Salt Lake-Oakland coach fare is $138, plus a $79 surcharge for an economy sleeping room. The air fare is as little as $69 for a flight time of less than two hours.

But if you have the time to spare, there is no competition in terms of comfort, adventure and pleasure.

The double-deck Superliner cars are quiet and surprisingly stable. Only occasionally will a rough section of track cause a passenger to grab for a seat back while walking through a car. But that is rare. The nighttime run across Utah and northern Nevada was smooth enough to allow for uninterrupted sleep except during stops in Elko and Winnemucca.

The Zephyr, named for the old Western Pacific streamliner of the Feather River route, averages about 50 m.p.h. over the 814 miles between Salt Lake and Oakland. This includes 11 stops and a 30-m.p.h. average over the Sierra. The Zephyr hits a top speed of 79 m.p.h. on the sea-level stretch between Fairfield and Martinez, Calif.

The ride was especially smooth as the 10-car Zephyr coasted down the western slope of the Sierra through Colfax and into Sacramento. To the east, winds whipped clouds of satin-soft snow around the shining Sierra peaks. The steward on sleeping car No. 0531 said she did not suffer any particular anxiety over the budgetary fate of Amtrak. “If it happens, it happens. I’ll get another job.”

Amtrak opponents mock the federal subsidy by claiming that it would be cheaper to buy a plane ticket to wherever any Amtrak customer wants to go. Buses serve even more cities and towns, they add. But cut-rate airline tickets are available only on the most competitive routes; air travel is becoming more congested and less comfortable, and prices are certain to escalate as the industry completes the process of deregulation and consolidation. Greyhound is trimming the more unprofitable runs from its system.

But, they say, how can you support Amtrak when the government is forced to cut the budget for health care and aid to the poor? This argument is valid only on the assumption that those reductions are justified.

What is missing is any coherent debate over whether there is a national interest in maintaining rail passenger service. Most other industrial nations clearly believe there is such an interest, for they maintain their trains at a far higher level of support.

The Administration’s argument consists of this statement in the 1987 budget: “No funds are requested in 1987 because Amtrak’s performance to date has failed to justify continued massive federal subsidies of interstate, commuter and state-assisted service.” Perhaps so, but strictly on the basis of whether Amtrak is making money or not.

To kill Amtrak now would doom rail passenger service in the United States just at the time the nation’s 15-year capital investment is beginning to pay dividends in terms of efficiency, comfort and a high standard of service. Junking Amtrak now would sacrifice this investment in favor of a short-term budget gain.

Amtrak should be viewed instead as a valuable national asset that has not yet had a chance to prove its worth and fulfill its potential for popularity.

The United States built its rail network in the 19th Century with massive subsidies to the railroads, particularly in the once wide-open West where the longer Amtrak runs are now under attack. Perhaps the nation need not be quite so eager to junk an Amtrak system that at least has proved its ability to modernize in impressive fashion.