RAILROAD NEWS AND COMMENTARY FROM WASHINGTON BY WES VERNON Amtrak Infrastructure Issues Coming to a Head


JIM MATHEWS, PRESIDENT AND CEO of the Na- tional Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) and the man whose cause (from a con- sumer perspective) is to keep the passenger trains running in America, sees “a critical in- frastructure failure” ahead on [almost] “any- thing [having to do with the advancement of an improved passenger train network.]” That concern is not new, but Mathews’ plea for help is rooted in a belief that band-aid solutions will no longer do if passenger railroading is to assume its badly needed role in 21st century America. Temporary fixes to an industry that is so capital intensive are not serious efforts, he apparently believes. America’s system of running passenger


trains on freight railroads is so unusual worldwide that for years Simmons-Boardman publishing ran annual two-day seminars in Washington focused on that specific subject. We at this column still marvel that freight


and passenger traffic existed under the same private sector railroad companies as long as they did. They are different enough that when you consider their requirements (including their respective customer bases), it would not be difficult to surmise that the only signifi- cant commonality they have is they run the “steel wheel on the steel rail.” The infrastructure that for decades has en-


abled Amtrak to operate, however tenuously, is on yet another path of thin ice. “It may be something as simple as maybe Amtrak hav- ing [only] a single track through the Hudson River tunnel,” says Mathews. The virtual thread-like conditions by which


the fate of the 106-year old trans-Hudson rail- road tunnels manages to hang are precarious. Trains in the tunnels have experienced some delays as they carry hundreds of thousands of souls between New Jersey and Penn Station in New York on weekdays, as well as a busy schedule on weekends. It won’t be long before it will be impossible to maintain service lev- els on the current two tracks of the tunnels’ century-old right-of-way. There are reasons for Mathews’ concern — or that “one way or the other, this thing is coming to a head,” as he explains to R&R. Although the proposals for overall rail-


road modernization put forth and discussed in these pages in recent issues are aimed at arriving at meaningful and lasting solutions, there are barriers to that effort that will need to be addressed before such plans, even if con- siderably modified, can go forward. The up- grading and long-term proposals that helped prompt our interview with Mathews include infrastructure work on the Northeast Corri- dor as well as cooperative projects in much of the rest of the rail system beyond this densely populated slice of America. Accordingly, the efforts to prepare the rail


system for the different roles required by its respective historical, economic, population, and land use issues would involve a list of improvements that have been on the shelf, so to speak, for months or years. Responsibil- ities fall to a loosely related mixture of public and private entities such as AirNet-21, the National Railroad Infrastructure Corporation


(NRIC), the Association of Independent Pas- senger Rail Operators (AIPRO), and the In- frastructure Management Association (IMO). Mathews, whose main focus for the mo-


ment involves the urgency of the here and now, has been briefed on the proposals, says they are interesting, but cautions there would have to be substantive movement beyond the proposals’ current on-paper status (my words, not his, though the essence of his outlook comes down to that). “This thing,” Mathews says is “coming to


a head” begins with the understanding that though the above groups have fascinating ideas, there are those requiring immediate attention, the Hudson Gateway tunnel being only the most obvious at the moment. Some other ideas the above groups have suggested (including some, again outlined in our previ- ous articles in this space) would be most wel- come, but are of less urgency. Railroads can and should be allowed to operate in such a way as to realize their full potential to serve the public, the economy, and the nation’s overall convenience. Mathews is concerned because Amtrak —


on the NEC, where it owns most of the track- age — could use some long-postponed repairs to reach its full potential. Elsewhere, Amtrak has a problem as a user on the mostly pri- vately owned property in much of the rest of America’s rail infrastructure. Highway traffic is clogged, the Class I


freight railroads are under pressure to con- struct new trackage — or in some cases re-construct trackage that was abandoned in the days (post-World War II to the 1970s) when railroads were downsizing before dereg- ulation. Today, space for freight and passen- ger trains is at a premium. “NARP is interested in hearing ideas


from everyone involved, from every involved party,” Mathews tells us. And he adds that means both “the public sector and the private sector.” At this point, when we asked him about


the approaches raised in the previous col- umns about such as AIPRO and AIRNet-21 (formally American Intercity Raik Network for the 21st Century), his comment is that of course, “We have to be open to creative ap- proaches. That’s all great, but I think we have to be careful that we don’t blind ourselves to the logistical, legal, and political challenges involved in the massive overhaul of the oper- ating and governance structure of the North- east corridor.” So, from what he has seen of AIRNet-21


(and the other entities such as AIPRO), what does the passenger train advocate think of their overall approach? “I’ve read it, I’ve been briefed on it,” he replies. “I think it’s a pretty interesting idea. I think it’s one bunch of in- teresting ideas. I just think there are a lot of possibilities, but also I think it’s not NARP’s role to advocate for destroying our current system when there is no replacement identi- fied. There’s a lot of ground to cover between where we are now and what that proposal envisions. It’s one of a bunch of really fas- cinating ideas. But there are a lot of things


Good times, good friends, and the return of Union Pacifi c 844 at the NRHS convention.


Railroad Collisions,


A Deadly Story of Mismanaged Risk by George Swimmer


amazon.com/author/georgeswimmer An examination of


the mismanagement and misinformation that endanger lives


throughout America’s sprawling rail system.


Available in paperback from Amazon and as an e-book from Kindle


21


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