Riding the Rails Is Cramped, Disruptive--and Fine by Clinton

With his “21st Century Express” helping pump some excitement into his campaign, President Clinton has been captivated by the poetry of the rails and is proclaiming the iron horse his favorite way to meet constituents.

Easy for him to say.

Setting up this four-day, 500-mile trip was no easy matter for the president, who is making his way to an expected triumphal reception at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this evening. The train’s restless crowds, physical limits and security needs have complicated life on the rails as the gleaming campaign caravan has wound its way through the Midwest.

The 13-car rail caravan is a sort of rolling palace. The president’s two private cars are laid out to serve as a parlor, a dining space, and other living and sleeping facilities.

Further forward there is space for public gatherings, studio space for TV interviews and other cars that are laid out as first-class coaches and office space for a huge network contingent.

White linen food service is almost always in progress for the 75 White House staff members, 50 VIP visitors and 150-plus journalists and media technicians.

Yet with 275 or more bodies laboring in a confined space--plotting political strategy, making announcements, reporting and filming those announcements and protecting the president--people inevitably get in each others’ way.

Indeed, the constant shuffling of travelers back and forth between cars makes the “21st Century Express” almost as much like the train station as the train itself.

Joe Lockhart, Clinton’s deputy campaign press secretary, found it a bit distracting to have chatty visitors wandering nearby while he was interviewed by a Miami television station. “People keep coming through the car: ‘Hi! Is that your beer?’ ” Lockhart said.

Due to the many travelers on the train, small problems threaten to become big ones. One night the Amtrak kitchen crew discovered to its chagrin that it had exhausted all its water supply as it served more than 200 diners. “I guess we’ll be carrying these dirty dishes down the line a ways,” said Venson Brown, a cook.

Meanwhile, in the rush to attend to on-board problems, some of the mundane campaign tasks of preparing rallies apparently have not gotten sufficient attention.

The peaceful residents of Bowling Green, Ohio, seemed near an uprising during Clinton’s evening visit because aides had put up a platform for television cameras that blocked the view of dozens of Democrats who had endured a lengthy wait in line to see the president.

“Media get down! Media get down!” chanted the crowd. Aides, fearing that the incident could cause problems for the president’s first speech from the train’s rear car--a prime photo opportunity for the media--hastily moved the unhappy group closer to Clinton.

The whistle-stop venues also have posed difficulties. In Chillicothe, Ohio, the president was bothered by a swarm of insects as he began his speech.

He gamely tried to ignore them as he charged through his list of first-term achievements but eventually began wiping the bugs from his mouth and face. When he finished his remarks, an aide wiped a coating of the bugs from his jacket.

Officials learned later that a contractor had been urged to spray for insects before the train arrived but decided that he would save money instead.

The greatest complication of Clinton’s whistle-stop journey has been fitting the unusual train into a busy rail network.

“This is a very complicated business we’re in,” acknowledged Debbie Hare, a spokeswoman for Amtrak.

The Secret Service does not allow other trains to move on the same rails that the “21st Century Express” uses, and less-traveled routes have been chosen. Amtrak and the CSX, Conrail and Grand Trunk Western freight lines have rerouted some of their traffic around the president’s train.

Spokesmen for the freight lines played down the disruptions. “We don’t expect much noticeable inconvenience to the shipping public,” said Bob Walker, a vice president with Grand Trunk, a subsidiary of Canadian National.

But railroad industry sources said delays of hours or even days could not be avoided. Perhaps as many as 1,500 rail passengers will be forced to take buses today, when the presidential caravan crosses into Michigan and interrupts lines serving Detroit.

The presidential planners had to switch Clinton to a helicopter for the last leg into Chicago tonight to avoid disrupting carefully timed schedules for commuter rail lines in the city.

Aides will not discuss security in any detail but acknowledged that they have a tougher job ensuring presidential safety on a train, which allows far less maneuverability than a limousine or aircraft.

To provide a buffer, the Secret Service has put one train ahead of the “21st Century Express” and one behind it. The lead train is supposed to spot danger and act as a decoy, while the train in the rear can couple to the president’s train and pull it to safety in the event of a mishap.

The presidential train is crammed with the gear needed for White House communications and security operations. It is “loaded with enough high-tech equipment to a make a Star Trek movie,” according to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

The Secret Service took extra steps to ensure the president’s safety in the last car, the royal blue “Georgia 300,” where he spends most of his time. John Heard, the Florida funeral director who owns the 66-year-old car and leased it to the White House, said protective armor was added all around it, most thickly around the bunting-draped platform at the rear of the car that Clinton has used for his whistle-stop speeches.

The car, built in 1930, is paneled with cherrywood. Clinton has a comfortable wooden swivel chair decorated with gold lions to sit in. It can twist to view any part of the passing scene. Daughter Chelsea and a friend, Nikki Davison, were traveling with the president but left Tuesday.

Whatever headaches it has caused, the train trip clearly has given enormous gratification to a chief executive who is spending most of his time courting public approval.

Since Sunday, Clinton has seen thousands of admirers and the curious who have flocked along his route--clogging streets and rooftops, standing in forests of high-tassled corn and aboard boats on the Ohio River. Carrying signs and waving flags, they have created a Middle American tableau across mile after mile of rolling terrain.

As the train curved around one hillside, two small girls in ruffled dresses came into view jumping up and down, up and down, apparently simply because they were excited to be near the president’s train. Further along the route, a rugged man in overalls sat in the cab of his pickup, waving an oversized American flag.

The train wound its way through rural Ohio and Michigan.

Clinton kept popping onto the rear platform, calling huskily into a microphone to scattered onlookers: “Hi, How are you . . ? Nice garden! I like your dog.”