Uncertain Future Shadows Starlight
Amtrak’s Coast Starlight moves north out of Los Angeles, whooshing past scores of San Fernando Valley backyards. This being the start of a day-and-a-half train ride to Seattle, Ken Jacobsen and his young son have adopted a survival mind-set: Dig in and take what the train gives you. Watch the world go by. Don’t worry about the food, the service, the fact that wafting through their rail car just now is an awful smell that brings to mind dirty diapers.
“It’s an adventure, so you go with it, like riding a wave,” says Jacobsen, a Huntington Beach mortgage broker, one of about 20 people in his coach-class car. “There’s a psychology at work. Maybe things won’t be perfect, but the scenery will be nice.... We’d better just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
For Amtrak, the nation’s taxpayer-financed passenger rail agency, the ride grows bumpier by the minute. Founded in 1970 with a mandate to break even in three years, the railway has never come close to that goal. For various reasons -- poor management, lack of public investment, competition on freeways and in the air are among those cited -- Amtrak is now more than $4 billion in the red and barely pays its bills.
Last year, an oversight body concluded that the railway should be partly privatized and massively restructured. It said the company should focus mainly on the busy stretch of track between Washington, D.C., and Boston, the only corridor in Amtrak’s nationwide network that breaks even on operating costs. This summer, Congress had to bail out Amtrak with an emergency appropriation of $205 million, and the Department of Transportation added a $100-million loan. Now, Washington is once again debating Amtrak’s fate.
With Congress wrangling over the federal budget, Amtrak is seeking at least $1.2 billion, which it says is the minimal amount needed to maintain existing service. The Senate wants to give that much; the House and the Bush administration do not. Lawmakers decided this month to put off the matter until after the November election, passing a resolution that will leave Amtrak operational, with federal money trickling in for at least a few more months.
Amtrak President David Gunn, a blunt-talking transit veteran hired in May to turn the agency around, is confident that his rail service will get the $1.2 billion he says it needs. If not, he said, “the practical reality is: We could end up losing the whole thing.”
Among the possibilities discussed in Washington: Close down the entire Amtrak network. Or create a company that focuses on rapidly growing short-haul routes, such as that between Los Angeles and San Diego, even if it means abandoning the nation’s 14 overnight, long-distance trains -- including the Coast Starlight and three other routes through California.
That scenario is a nightmare for rail fans, who celebrate the history and romance of long-haul journeys. The Coast Starlight, which runs for extended stretches along the Pacific Ocean, is perhaps Amtrak’s most renowned overnight train. But the long-distance trains, the Coast Starlight included, are the system’s biggest money losers.
Norman Y. Mineta, secretary of transportation and a member of the Amtrak board, asked in a recent interview: If a long-distance train “doesn’t make sense from an economic perspective, what is the justification for keeping it in operation?” He added, “Every line is up for grabs.”
*
Aboard the Coast Starlight, as it pushes past Santa Barbara, many passengers can be heard discussing Amtrak’s fate. There’s consensus: The federal government should shell out more, not less, for the nation’s rail system.
“Just what is Congress thinking? This is just ridiculous,” says Curtis Larsen, a vacationer, like almost everyone else on board. Larsen, a retired minister from rural Wisconsin on his way to San Francisco with his wife and son, ticks off the reasons he thinks Amtrak should get a boost.
The country needs a real rail network, connecting small towns and cities, he says. The country needs trains, because the air industry could be crippled by another terrorist attack. Many people don’t want to fly anymore.
Then, echoing another favorite argument of Amtrak supporters, he compares America with Europe.
“It makes no sense,” Larsen says. “Even Spain, though it’s struggled so much with its economy it was practically Third World a little over a decade ago -- they’ve got a wonderful system with high-speed rail.
“Our system? It’s on life support.”
Critics of Amtrak say the rail agency is on life support for good reason. Amtrak, they have long maintained, is poorly organized, out of touch and wasteful.
Long-distance routes like the Coast Starlight are often cited as a prime example of what ails the agency. They hemorrhage money, losing, on average, about $185 per passenger, according to Amtrak statistics.
What’s more, the trains are used mostly by tourists, not by people with a pressing need to get from place to place. Transportation for tourists, the critics say, should not be funded by the government.
One prominent critic, Joseph Vranich, a former national spokesman for Amtrak and author of “Derailed,” an examination of the U.S. train industry, says lines like the Coast Starlight should be franchised to private business.
Like many critics, Vranich believes that some of the lines should be sliced into smaller routes and that some could be turned into rail-bound luxury lines.
“It’s time for some new thinking. The long-distance trains are simply nonessential to most of America,” he says. “And they are bringing down the rest of Amtrak with their poor performance. They’re killing the rest of the system.”
*
One Coast Starlight leaves from Los Angeles each day, coursing along the California coast, through Oregon timber country and Washington farmland.
The long, silver trains typically have two first-class sleeper cars, a special lounge car for first-class passengers only, a dining car, a car with an observation deck and three second-class coach cars, where passengers spend much of their journey camped out in their chairs.
The trip is scheduled to take 36 hours. Round-trip fares in coach class run $216, meals not included. For a sleeper car, including access to the first-class lounge, the cost is $660.
By comparison, Southwest, United, Alaska and other airlines all offer multiple flights between Los Angeles and Seattle every day. A direct flight takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes, and a round trip costs as little as $193.
Riding the trains isn’t cheap, and they almost never run on schedule. The Coast Starlight meets its schedule only 35% of the time, according to Amtrak. Stefan Haire, a Coast Starlight restaurant manager, says he can’t remember the last time the train made it to Seattle anywhere close to schedule. “How can we ever be worth anything if we can’t get people where they expect to be on time?” he asks, sitting at a white-clothed dining table.
There are numerous reasons for the tardiness. One problem: The freight companies do the dispatching. They’re supposed to give passenger trains the right of way as trains approach one another going in opposite directions. Often they don’t.
Gunn also says an underfunded Amtrak is stuck with tired, old equipment. The trains break down too frequently, he says. And there is a massive shortfall on parts and replacement trains.
“If things don’t work perfectly, our scheduling gets hurt badly,” says Gunn, recalling a recent long-distance train he took that was four hours behind schedule. “We just don’t have any spare cars.”
*
Near Monterey, the Coast Starlight is forced to pull off onto a siding, so a freight train can pass.
The train is about half full by then. Many of the newcomers are from towns on or near the coast: San Luis Obispo, Goleta, Solvang.
Sandy Meredith is one of them.
Like many on board, she would rather sit on a train than drive or fly to the Bay Area. Also like many of the others, she is willing to put up with minor inconveniences, trading time for a leisurely chance to chat and connect with others.
“The train is a place where you can create relationships. I’ve made long-term friendships on the train; that’s the best thing about it,” she says, expressing a sentiment heard often. “It’s one of the few places you can go where people are very social and do a lot of talking.”
As the sun falls, the train slides past Watsonville. Ken Jacobsen’s rail car still smells. A trip to the bathrooms reveals why -- some of the bathrooms look like portable restrooms after a KISS concert.
Jacobsen and his 8-year-old son, Ryan, try hard to ignore the smell. Jacobsen says he’s still just attempting to maintain his no-worries attitude. He’d rather watch the sundown -- the splendid orange and brown hues rimming the coastal mountains -- than get upset. “There’s not a whole lot we can do.”
By Berkeley, it’s time for dinner. Haire, the restaurant manager, works the room. His waiters grind away at their jobs. The food isn’t cheap -- more than $15 for most dinners. It’s also unsatisfying. A stir-fry dish comes with dry, wilted vegetables. A steak is tough and not hot enough. Denny’s, says one diner, would hit the spot about now.
One of the waiters, a bald man who seems to be trying too hard to be funny, grates on the nerves of some passengers. “How can I not serve you?” he asks.
One of the waiter’s colleagues later sits at a table and says many Amtrak employees are simply burned out, tired of the constant uncertainty. Many workers feel protected, he says: “They could fire us all. It’s not going to hurt us.”
The worker is referring to an Amtrak labor agreement that essentially grants long-term severance packages, many of them lasting several years, to Amtrak workers employed on any rail line that ends up getting cut.
The labor agreement is another thorn in Amtrak’s side, critics say. If the agency did shed some of its long-distance lines, cost savings wouldn’t materialize for several years, until most of the severance packages ran out.
Says the worker: “What do I care? I’m gonna get paid. No matter what.”
*
It is pitch dark. The train left downtown Los Angeles a little more than a dozen hours ago and is rolling out of Sacramento. Passengers in the coach section pretzel in their chairs, working into positions that will allow for some sleep.
The train creeps forward, stopping on sidings. It stops in Redding at 3 in the morning, Dunsmuir at 5. Three hours later it creeps into Klamath Falls, Ore., one of the many small towns that Amtrak helps connect to the outside world. It’s clear as the passengers rub their backs and groan that few have had a restful night. They are joined by a few new riders.
The service Amtrak provides to small communities is one of the most important reasons the agency’s long-distance trains are necessary, contends Gunn, the Amtrak president.
Look at the California coast, or part of Oregon and Washington, he says. “A lot of people would have trouble getting out of their towns if not for us. We’re needed.... The federal government has a responsibility here. We don’t cut back postal service to small towns because it doesn’t make economic sense. We shouldn’t leave them without trains.”
Bob Krebs, who oversees passenger rail service for the Oregon Department of Transportation, agrees. He says Amtrak is essential to smaller communities such as Klamath Falls.
Air service to small towns all over the country has recently been cut and is costly. For a place like Klamath Falls, served by one Greyhound bus a day, says Krebs, Amtrak is “a lifeline.”
Vranich disagrees, arguing that there is no town in America that truly depends on Amtrak.
His argument is backed up, perhaps unintentionally, by Klamath Falls City Manager Jeff Ball.
After making the case that Amtrak is very important to the town and many small communities surrounding it, Ball is asked to imagine what it would be like if the Coast Starlight disappeared.
“To be honest,” he says, “it’s not going to make or break the town. Amtrak is a convenience. Losing Amtrak would be more of an inconvenience than anything else.”
The train moves through Oregon. On the observation deck, Rita Castellano, a retired anthropology professor, is enjoying one of the trip’s highlights: the spectacular pine trees and vistas of the Willamette National Forest. She soaks it in, puts her feet up on a seat. “Feet off!” barks the bald waiter, who happens to be walking by. “Get them off!”
Castellano is clearly miffed. She’s seen the same waiter treating people rudely throughout the afternoon. His act is wearing thin. “He’s not funny,” she says. “Amtrak wants to know what their problem is? Why people aren’t using the train. That’s where it starts.”
According to Gunn, what Amtrak really needs is enough money to invest deeply in the system’s infrastructure. He says he would buy more trains and improve track and signaling. The agency also needs more help from individual states, he says, the kind of help that California, which has given more than $1.5 billion to aid Amtrak, is known for. Gunn says the agency needs the kind of massive federal and state investment that highways get. The $1.2 billion is just a starting point.
He hopes to gain the trust of Washington lawmakers by boldly admitting that the railway will always need subsidies, by making Amtrak’s accounting more transparent and by tabling for now plans to build high-speed rail systems. (States such as California are tentatively pushing high-speed rail plans forward without Amtrak).
He’s also concentrating on practical upgrades: spending on more trains and track and working to eliminate rail bottlenecks -- where multiple tracks used by freight and passenger trains merge -- that slow speeds far below the federally mandated limit of 79 mph for most trips.
As the Coast Starlight moves through just such a bottleneck, near Tacoma, Wash., Rock and Carol Peterson, two coach-class tourists from Victoria, Canada, admit that they are weary. Maybe they will ride first class one day, Rock Peterson says. It would be fun to sit in the first-class parlor car, where passengers get complimentary cheese, wine and crackers.
Now the train slices through low-slung, industrial parts of Seattle, alongside Safeco Field, the 3-year-old baseball stadium.
About a dozen riders are standing in the aisles, eager to get off the train as soon as they can. Without prodding, many look back on the trip. The reviews, of the food, the service, the cleanliness, are mixed.
Ken Jacobsen says he wouldn’t recommend Amtrak; it cost too much, the service wasn’t great and he couldn’t handle the smell much longer. Still, he notes that his son had fun frolicking around the train.
Then two people from Minnesota offer an assessment that would make Amtrak chief Gunn’s day. They are wholly enthusiastic. They loved the whole journey. The slow and steady pace of the train made them forget about the day-to-day grind of work back home.
The Coast Starlight, they say, made time stand still.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Troubles for Amtrak
The fate of Amtrak is under debate as the nation’s taxpayer-financed passenger rail system struggles to pay its bills and recover from a multibillion-dollar debt.
Money-losing routes to and from West Coast
1. Sunset Limited
Loss per passenger: $347
2. Southwest Chief
Loss per passenger: $237
3. California Zephyr
Loss per passenger: $144
4. Empire Builder
Loss per passenger: $114
5. Coast Starlight
Loss per passenger: $93
*
Government investment in transportation, 1971-2000 (In billions)
In Amtrak: $39
In aviation systems: $225
In highways: $607
*
Passengers using various transportation systems daily
Amtrak trains: 64,000 (2001)
Domestic airlines: 1.8 million (2000)
Intercity buses: 984,000 (2000)
*
Source: U.S. General Accounting Office report on Intercity Passenger Service, April 11, 2002
