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Rail Passengers
WEEKLY HOTLINE
Issue #1,241
December 10, 2021
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Table of Contents:
(click to auto-scroll)
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“Rail Passengers is particularly appreciative for the ambition displayed in the [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act] IIJA. Rather than simply bringing existing Amtrak assets into a state-of-good-repair and enhancing service on the Northeast Corridor, the IIJA provides states with the predictable funding and policy tools they need to add additional frequencies and lay the foundation for dozens of new passenger rail corridors across the U.S.”
-- part of the Rail Passengers Association Statement for the Record for the Dec. 9th House T&I Hearing on Leveraging IIJA
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Passengers to Engineers: Please Don’t Quit
By Jim Mathews / President & CEO
I really didn’t want to be right. Honest.
I had hoped that Amtrak operating employees crucial to keeping our daily services running every day would step up and help us all avoid losing services, even temporarily. Let’s face it, cutting services down from daily only weeks after Congress has approved the largest capital infusion in Amtrak’s 50-year history...is not a great look.
“We don’t expect these requirements will cause disruptions to services that people depend on,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing Thursday following Amtrak President Stephen Gardner’s appearance before House lawmakers. “There is some time to implement it. We are of course working with all federal contractors and federal employees and parts of the federal government to implement this going forward.”
I’m glad she’s optimistic. I’m less so. It’s true that 95% vaccinated is a lot of progress from the 80% or where Amtrak was earlier this Fall when we began to ring the alarm bells. And we have until January 4th – nearly, though not quite, a full month – to get that final cohort of vital employees into compliance.
But many of those hard-core folks remaining are those who are adamantly opposed to getting a vaccine at all, either for religious reasons or out of more political objections. I know, I’m getting emails from them. A lot of them. And some of them are pretty mean, for what it’s worth.
In the written testimony we were asked to provide for yesterday’s hearing, I noted that “regardless of how we arrived at this point, an extended disruption of Amtrak service on corridors affecting hundreds of communities, mere weeks after the passage of the IIJA, would surely undermine public confidence in these promising new passenger rail programs. We hope Amtrak will be able to avoid any disruptions to service. If cuts do take place, Congress must leverage its oversight powers and the FY22 appropriations bill to ensure that any such disruptions are brief.”
Our friend Frank Wilner, the long-time rail observer and excellent columnist for Railway Age magazine, offers an intriguing temporary solution – one that I can say I wholeheartedly endorse. Congress can work together with rail unions to pass a quick bill that would temporarily allow recently retired operating employees to go back to work on the railroad for six to nine months without forfeiting their monthly railroad retirement system payment. This could well coax folks back where they’re needed, with the Class Is and with Amtrak, by removing the major disincentive they now face, forfeiting those benefits.
We could make it temporary, we could make it applicable only to certain classes of employees, and we could write in provisions to address seniority concerns. Re-qualifying these employees should take less time than growing them from scratch, and many may have retired recently enough that flowback provisions would funnel them right back where they left.
That might be enough to get our congested railroads back in service and Amtrak through the hump of training a new crop of locomotive engineers and conductors.
Meanwhile, as I’ve said before in this space, if you’re out riding the trains, make a point of offering a cheerful thank-you to conductors, assistant conductors, OBS crews, and locomotive engineers whenever you see them. And tell them how much you need them to do the right thing and stay on the job.
House Hearing on Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Reveals Details on Amtrak Service Disruptions, Opportunities for Rail Corridor Expansion
Originally posted on railpassengers.org on 12/09/21
[Updated with comments from Ranking Member Graves.]
by Sean Jeans-Gail | Vice President, Gov't Affairs + Policy
At a hearing held today by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, rail operators from across the nation spoke of the opportunities and challenges they face in leveraging $66 billion in guaranteed federal funding from the bipartisan Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act to expand and upgrade the U.S. passenger rail network. Witnesses also talked about the ongoing challenges of running sprawling transportation companies during a pandemic.
Amtrak President Stephen Gardner offered the clearest timeline yet for potential service interruptions flowing from workforce disruptions. These include retirements, management-mandated furloughs, separation payments executed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as resignations resulting from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Importantly, Gardner sketched out a timeline for service restorations in addition to when passengers will be informed of schedule changes:
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“[Amtrak is] currently determining what service reductions will be necessary and intend to communicate them publicly by next week in order to ensure that we can rebook customers to the remaining frequencies we feel confident we can fully staff.”
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Amtrak projects that, if disruptions were to take place, full service will be restored in March 2022, or “as soon as we have qualified employees available.”
The announcement drew the displeasure of the committee's ranking Republican, Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), who pointed out the irony of cutting service immediately in the wake of passing a bill $66 billion in guaranteed funding over five years for passenger rail. "Taxpayers will be paying more money for less service.”
Rail Passengers has been covering this story since October, so many of the underlying details will be familiar to our supporters. However, today was the most public venue in which a top Amtrak official has offered this level of detail about the operational mechanics driving potential disruptions, and why those impacts will be unevenly felt across the network:
“This impact is primarily felt across our long-distance services because of the relatively small crew bases at intermediate points along multi-day long-distance routes where conductors and engineers report to work. At some of these crew bases across our network, we have a relatively high percentage of unvaccinated employees. If those employees chose to not get vaccinated by the deadline, we will not have sufficient trained staff to support current service frequency on affected routes, as engineers and conductors must undergo extensive training both when hired or promoted and to become qualified on the characteristics of each route on which they work. We are currently determining what service reductions will be necessary and intend to communicate them publicly by next week in order to ensure that we can rebook customers to the remaining frequencies we feel confident we can fully staff. Our goal, of course, will be to have as few impacts to service as possible as we take these vital public health steps to help end the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce the spread of the new Omicron variant, and we will be prepared to reinstate frequencies as soon as the number of available employees permits.”
In a statement filed for the record, Rail Passengers outlined our original concerns with Amtrak management’s decisions to implement furloughs and voluntary separations in spite of the likelihood of federal aid packages, and the need to fully return service in a smooth and timely fashion:
In 2020, Rail Passengers warned Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration, and members of Congress that the railroad was making a mistake with decisions to furlough employees and temporarily mothball rolling stock, cautioning that dismantling the people and equipment needed to recover to normal service levels would be a real problem when it was time to resume operation.
With that being said, we do wish to recognize the concrete steps Amtrak has taken to avoid any disruptions to service. This includes extending the deadline for vaccinations to Jan. 4, giving the company time to educate workers on the vaccination process and preventing disruptions during the critical holiday travel period. As of the last public communication, Amtrak stated that 94 percent of employees that it expects to be available for service in December had gotten at least one vaccine shot.
Regardless of how we arrived at this point, an extended disruption of Amtrak service on corridors affecting hundreds of communities, mere weeks after the passage of the IIJA, would surely undermine public confidence in these promising new passenger rail programs. We hope Amtrak will be able to avoid any disruptions to service. If cuts do take place, Congress must leverage its oversight powers and the FY22 appropriations bill to ensure that any such disruptions are brief.
Uncertain Impact of Recent Decision by U.S. District Court
The timeline presented by Amtrak at today’s hearing may be thrown into doubt by news that a nationwide stay of President Joe Biden’s Executive Order mandating federal contractors to require their employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine, issued by U.S. District Court judge in Georgia.
“The Executive Order applies to millions of federal contractors, including some freight railroads, Amtrak, defense companies and airlines,” reported Railway Age today. “Amtrak, BNSF, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific are among those requiring employees to be vaccinated, and have been in court battles with unions over implementation.”
Opportunities for Growth of the Rail Network Abound
There were also plenty of positive, forward-looking proposals discussed at today’s hearing. When asked by Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) where Amtrak sees near-term opportunities to add service in the near-term, Gardner pointed to several long-time goals of our association, including a Heartland Flyer extension north to Wichita and Newton, Colorado's Front Range, a second daily train between the Twin Cities and Chicago, and the Baton Rouge – New Orleans corridor.
Additionally, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) asked a series of pointed questions about the problem of freight trains interfering with Amtrak trains, causing persistent delays for passengers, as well as the need for Class I railroads to be transparent in granting access to Amtrak trains on new corridors. Knox Ross, the Mississippi Commissioner and Chair of the Southern Rail Commission, provided a persuasive response: freights need to follow the law in granting Amtrak passengers priority dispatching; and while it’s important to respect proprietary information, there’s a clear distinction between private financial data and things that anybody with time on their hands can go discover with their own eyes, such as the number of trains that utilize a specific corridor.
Rail Passengers is pleased to see congressional attention focused on these issues, and Ross’ argument aligns with comments made in our statement for the record:
It is self-evident that the success of the IIJA outside of the Northeast Corridor (NEC)—that is to say, whether it will result in meaningful expansion of the number of Americans who ride passenger trains every year—hinges on the ability of the federal government, states, Amtrak, and regional rail authorities to collaborate successfully with the owners of existing rail rights of way.
Rail Passengers is encouraged by the experiences of rail entities like the Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor Agency, which has utilized coordinated cap-ex planning, service enhancement agreements, and collaborative structures such as the LOSSAN Working Group to forge a productive and sustainable partnership. We encourage the FRA, states, Amtrak and other Class Is to look to this partnership as a model. It is important that transportation officials identify the requisite characteristics of a mutually beneficial relationship between passenger rail carriers and host railroads—e.g., minimum levels of passenger train service, freight throughput, existing infrastructure, political engagement, etc.—to understand where this partnership can be readily replicated and where that replication will be more difficult.
However, Rail Passengers remains concerned about the unreasonably high levels of freight train interference affecting Amtrak passengers. Too many of Amtrak’s State-supported routes have On-Time Performance (OTP) hovering at 70 percent, with OTP for routes like the Cascades and Pennsylvanian at 64 percent and 68 percent, respectively. Long-distance passengers have it worse, with trains on-time only 51 percent of the time. Poor service from many host railroads has caused chronic and excessive delays for millions of riders who rely on the Amtrak system, and they threaten the long-term viability of the service in dozens of states. America’s passengers are asking Congress to hold host railroads accountable for freight train interference, and we ask that this subcommittee works with the FRA to ensure the Metrics and Minimum Standards for Intercity Passenger Rail Service enacted last year are used vigorously to protect the rights of passengers to on-time trains.
Rail Passengers has also been actively taking part in the dispute between Amtrak and CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway that is currently being mediated by the Surface Transportation Board (STB). Our organization filed a letter in May 2021 in support of Amtrak’s petition for an interim order compelling CSX and Norfolk Southern to permit Amtrak timely and sufficient access to facilities and data to move forward with the preparations needed to restore passenger rail service between New Orleans, LA and Mobile, AL in early 2022 (the STB recently ordered CSX to let Amtrak survey its Choctaw Yard in Mobile, so that Amtrak may determine the feasibility of rebuilding the West Stub Track, previously used to layover passenger trains, until the planned Mobile station is completed). We believe that the overriding principle in this instance is Amtrak’s legal right to access freight railroad tracks for a fair and reasonable cost. CSX has said it will take $2 billion to accommodate a single train every 12 hours; that is not reasonable, and it is not fair.
There is a larger concern at play, centered on the potential precedent this behavior sets for future passenger rail expansion elsewhere in the U.S. If a freight railroad can operate in bad faith to draw out the process to restore passenger train service along a single corridor for longer than a decade, as has happened with the Gulf Coast, there is little hope for new passenger rail projects anywhere in the U.S.
We encourage Congress to engage with host railroads and the STB to ensure that congressional intent in the IIJA is not being thwarted by obstructionist tactics.
Tweet Thread from Yesterday’s Hearing
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Join Rail Passengers in Thanking Congress
We have created a VoterVoice campaign to send thank-yous to your member of Congress who helped pass the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act.
Thanks to their vote on this historic bill, Amtrak passengers will see newly refurbished train interiors and brand new trainsets, expanded and upgraded train stations and platforms, additional frequencies that offer more convenient travel options and connections, and new energy-efficient locomotives. Passengers will also benefit from the less glamorous upgrades to our aging rail infrastructure that will eliminate delays, add capacity and reduce trip-times: new bridges, rebuilt tunnels, upgraded signals, additional sidings, crossovers and double-tracking.
Click Here To Thank Your Members of Congress!
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Donate Online with Confidence
You can donate to the Rail Passengers Association online with confidence, knowing your credit card information is secure. Fundraise Up uses industry-standard SSL technology to keep your information secure. Supply chain disruptions are impacting our print production vendor. Don’t wait for a paper appeal to donate, support the Association by donating today.
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Rail Passengers Webinar Series
More information for our events in 2022 is coming soon!
Miss out on our past events? You can watch them on our YouTube channel or through our website at railpassengers.org/webinars
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Lockbox Transition + Postal Update
NEW UPDATE
As we’ve been noting in the Hotline for several months, our lockbox location transitioned from Baltimore to Pittsburgh. Recently, we learned the postal facility in Pittsburgh returned some our response envelopes to the original sender, if a return address was noted on the envelope, instead of submitting the mail for processing by the Association’s financial partner. If your your membership dues or donation envelope has been returned to you, PLEASE place the original Pittsburgh envelope, the buckslip along with your check in one of your stamped envelopes and forward to the DC office. The Association sincerely apologizes for this inconvenience. We are in regular contact with the Pittsburgh postal facility and our lockbox financial partner to rectify the ongoing processing issues. We will be announcing additional lockbox changes in the near future.
Remember, you can renew your membership online by logging into your Neon account. If you can’t remember your login, please call the office for assistance.
If you’d like to make a donation online, in lieu of sending a paper check to the lockbox, you can do so by clicking here.
Instead of sending donations/dues to our lockbox, mail can be sent directly to the office in DC.
Office mailing address:
Rail Passengers Association
Attn: Membership or Donation
1200 G Street, NW
Suite 240
Washington, DC 20005
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End of Year Giving
It’s your generosity and partnership that gives us the resources and encouragement the Rail Passengers Association needs as resources grow tighter. We all hope and pray next year will be easier than the past two years. We have challenges ahead. But together, we’re in a position to prevail.
You may be considering your end of year giving, and we humbly ask you to donate to support our work. Below are ways you can help our small professional staff:
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Make a donation, any amount will help.
You can donate online here. Please consider making it monthly.
Send a check donation to:
Rail Passengers Association
1200 G Street NW, Suite 240
Washington, DC 20005
ATTN: EOY Donation
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Does your employer match donations? If they do, please ask them to match your contributions. An employer may match the donation from a retired employee.
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Consider donating through a Donor Advised Fund. Learn more about ways to give my visiting myimpact.railpassengers.org.
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Reduce your taxes by using your IRA to support rail transit. Learn more about how a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) can benefit you.
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Know someone who relies on rail transportation but is not yet a member? Encourage them to join! As our membership grows, so does our impact!
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Rail Passengers President + CEO Jim Mathews gives a brief update on the launch of our railpassengers.org/timetables landing page.
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NOTICE: More Mail Delivery Delays
On October 1, 2021, the United States Postal Service (USPS) extended its standard delivery time for first-class mail up to five days. This delay could impact your membership dues and donations mailed to the DC office or lockbox.
Remember, you can renew your Rail Passengers Association membership online through “My Account” on the home page.
You can also make a donation online, here.
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Get Your Own ‘Rail Passengers’ Signature Federal Credit Union VISA Card!
Rail Passengers Association members have access to a full service, nationwide federal credit union with extensive product and service offerings. Signature FCU is the exclusive provider of the Rail Passengers Association-branded Visa credit card with our logo, which supports our work by giving back to our organization, and gives you 1 point for every $1 you spend to redeem for travel and merchandise. The card has no annual fee, no balance transfer fees, no foreign transaction fees, and has a very low interest rate.
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Thank You for Your Generosity on Giving Tuesday!
We are grateful for each and every Rail Passengers Association supporter. The outpouring of support for the Association on Giving Tuesday was strong. Staff has been blown away by your response to the challenge issued from our generous members to match their $10,000 donation. Not only did we meet that goal, but it was exceeded.
If you would like to contribute to our Giving Tuesday efforts, you can still do so today.
Your generosity helps the Rail Passengers Association defend a modern national passenger rail network, continue fighting for on-time service in the courts, demanding public accountability of Amtrak, producing economic benefits research, and ensuring the safety of our nation’s trains and passengers.
Your staff can’t thank you enough for your support!
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A selection of passenger rail and transportation stories from the week. For more, check out our social media feeds on Twitter & Facebook
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- Congress, Unions Can Cure Rail Worker Shortage, Railway Age
Railway Age Contributing Editor Frank Wilner poses an interesting question; With Amtrak facing a worker’s shortage, could recently retired union freight workers be incentivized to return to railroading temporarily?
- After Massive Transit Losses during the Pandemic, Agencies Are Planning a Comeback, Urban Institute
Citing studies by our partner organization, American Public Transportation Association, the data shows we can expect ridership to return to pre-pandemic levels in the coming years.
- Federal Railroad Administration announces availability of $198 million for intercity passenger rail projects, RT&S
Details emerge on the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for repairs and revitalization recently released by the FRA.
- Amtrak prepares for possible service cuts as employee vaccination deadline nears, Seattle Times
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Jim Mathews, executive director of the Rail Passengers Association, said some long-distance routes could temporarily go from daily service to operating three times a week.
“That would be really upsetting, and frankly, it would be upsetting to the members of Congress who wrote Amtrak checks with the idea that that would not have to happen,” he said.
- Could your next trip from Toledo to Columbus be by rail?, ABC13
Toledo City Councilwoman Theresa Morris shares her excitement for potential service expansion and the 3C corridor traversing Ohio.
- [Press Release] Canadian Pacific Plans Inaugural Round Trip for BR-NOLA Passenger Rail, Baton Rouge Area Chamber
“We look forward to the expansion and working with Amtrak to develop passenger service… This is historic. We’re excited about what this does for our customers, and what this does for our communities.” James Clements, SVP of Strategic Planning and Technology Transformation, is quoted alongside other decision makers in this press release.
- Why transit access can be unsafe for deaf and blind passengers, Crosscut
Lizz Giordano writes about the experiences of passengers aboard Sound Transit and King County services in the greater Seattle area. While many updates and expansions have been applauded, Giordano advocates to assure safe passage and access for all passengers.
- Boston's new mayor promised free public transit. Can she make it happen?, Grist
Mayor Michelle Wu continues her mission to create a fare-free Boston. If funding and policy changes are made, Boston could see a big change soon.
- Infrastructure law accelerates Chicago's push to make CTA stations accessible, Chicago Tribune
A provision in the Infrastructure bill by Sen. Tammy Duckworth includes $1.75 billion for ADA compliance updates to major transit networks and their stations still in need of accessibility development. The stations in need of compliance updates include 42 Chicago stations highlighted in this piece.
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AmazonSmile For The Holidays
Your holiday shopping can help make a difference, at no additional cost to you!
When you shop at smile.amazon, or in the Amazon app with AmazonSmile turned on within Settings, you’ll find the same products and same low prices as the Amazon you already know - plus, they donate a portion of your purchases to your chosen charity.
You can select us as your AmazonSmile charity by visiting: smile.amazon.com/ch/36-2615221
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If you aren’t following along on social media, join us via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and our blog posts on RailPassengers.org We are covering all the breaking news America’s passengers need to stay informed on local, regional, and national issues.
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If you are working with a local organization and have news you would like to share, please reach out and let us know by emailing Madison Butler (mbutler@narprail.org) with links to your press release, blog, or article.
Are you holding a community meeting, networking opportunity or another kind of rail-advocacy event? We can help spread the word if you send them to us. Email Joe Aiello (jaiello@narprail.org) We will include those updates in our coverage and put them on the website here.
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Where are we and what are we working on? This section will update you on what Rail Passengers HQ is up to...even when we’re all working online or from home
- Jim Mathews, President & CEO, participated in not one, not two, but three Federal advisory committee meetings this week as a voting member, working on rail passenger safety and on the congestion facing our nation’s surface-transportation system. He also conducted a monthly Board of Directors meeting and met with FRA officials.
- Sean Jeans Gail, Vice President of Policy, took the lead in drafting Rail Passengers’ statement for the record for Thursday’s hearing before the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials. You can read his coverage of the hearing, titled “Leveraging IIJA: Plans for Expanding Intercity Passenger Rail”, here.
- Jonsie Stone, Vice President of Resource Development & Operations, spent the week processing membership dues and donations, collaborating with YPTC on financials, finalizing end of year messages and tending to Association administrative needs.
- Joe Aiello, National Field Coordinator, spent a lot of time on the virtual meeting front this week while taking part in our online office hours event and staffing this month’s Board of Directors meeting. Joe has also been hard at work with the rest of the staff as we get ready to roll out our EOY messaging and wrap up for the holidays - while starting to plan a number of items for early 2022.
- Madison Butler, Communications Manager, participated in open office hours, prepared for Travel & Adventure Show, and followed up on member queries.
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Go to railpassengers.org/events for more information.
Please contact Joe Aiello (jaiello@narprail.org) to have a local, state or regional meeting added to the Rail Passengers calendar (print and on-line) of upcoming events!
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Rail Passengers Association Earns Coveted 3-Star Rating from Charity Navigator
Rail Passengers Association’s strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency have earned it a 3-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator.
The Rail Passengers Association’s Charity Navigator profile can be found by clicking here.
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- The Rail Passengers Association is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Our federal tax identification number is 36-2615221
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To help facilitate dissemination of electronic thank you receipts in 2021, please make sure your contact information, specifically your email address, is up-to-date in your Neon profile.
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If you need assistance with your membership, please call the Office at 202-408-8362.
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While our staff continues to work remotely, we are unable to provide permanent membership cards. You can print a temporary membership card by creating an account at www.railpassengers.org (select “My Account” on the homepage).
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Complete all information! -- Before sealing your envelope, PLEASE double-check the credit card information on the buck slip!
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Print credit card information clearly.
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Include an expiration date, month and year, as well as the CVV number.
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Without COMPLETE information your membership renewal or donation can’t be processed.
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If you have your financial institution send a check on your behalf, without a buckslip, PLEASE instruct them to add:
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a notation in the memo field if the payment is for membership dues or a donation, AND,
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your Rail Passengers Association member ID. If we have multiple members with the same name, i.e., John Smith, it can be hard to identify the correct member to attribute the payment, without the member ID.
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The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act includes new tax incentives for charitable giving. --- We’ve provided a quick overview here and encourage each of you to seek advice from a financial planner.
If you have a donor advised fund, please consider recommending a grant from your fund to be the Rail Passengers Association. It is a great way to maintain flexibility with your support throughout the year. For more information, go to http://myimpact.railpassengers.org/daf. As always, please feel free to contact Jonsie Stone if you have any questions.
The Rail Passengers Association would like to
thank our Annual Partners for their support!
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