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Amtrak Has an Image Problem in The Southwest

Maybe the image problem is just the same image problem afflicting government entities in general these days. Amtrak may have it worse than some, so let’s start with the generalities.

Despite the popularity of its trains—most of them run full, when they run—Amtrak is not the nationwide passenger rail system it’s advertised to be. It is that lack of coverage that gets a generous, if not overtly hostile, ho-hum from ninety-five percent of the general population. States like Illinois manage to squeeze out yearly ridership that approximates almost 40% of the state population, but the majority of those are repeat riders commuting to other major cities in the area. New Mexico barely ekes out 6% of population, not many are probable repeats given the dismal showing of The Southwest Chief. (Statistics from NARP with thanks.) Only half of the population of New Mexico is near an Amtrak Station.

Let’s face it. If you live between the Mississippi and the Pacific coastal mountains, you are probably nowhere near an Amtrak station. Once upon a time, just about every hamlet in these parts had a railroad station where you could catch a train to somewhere else. There just isn’t enough presence of Amtrak in the average westerner’s life to warrant thinking of Amtrak as a viable alternative to just hopping in the pickup and driving where you want to go.

Now to the bigger image problem; the one connected to government in general. Amtrak needs public funding so must therefore put pressure on local governments to subsidize its services. When the funding is needed for new equipment or track upgrades, the argument usually goes into the dark places: The track is old, it is getting too dangerous for reliable speeds, the equipment is wearing out, we have to cut staff, we have to cut services, etc. This is reasonable, but when local and state governments get to wrangling about appropriations, the truth gets told, writ large in headlines that tell the general populace that Amtrak is a hot mess that doesn’t deserve their patronage. And, after 46 years of dumping taxpayer dollars into it, people reasonably expect more than just a mess.

How do you fix it? Well, governments can’t really conceal this information from the public. If you have to appropriate money to fix bad track, there are laws that say you can’t tell the public it’s chopped liverwurst. Those people who have had bad experiences with Amtrak won’t make this situation any better, either. Case in point: This past week’s derailment of The Southwest Chief west of Dodge City, Kansas. Immediate social media reaction is that the tracks haven’t been maintained. It’s either the fault of Amtrak or the fault of the track owner, BNSF Railway. Nobody who has it bad to criticize Amtrak is going to wait for the investigation to conclude. And it very well may turn out to be poor maintenance. But the location is outside the target for October 2015’s funding of track upgrades, some of which were completed before year’s end.

The best solution might be for Amtrak to have a public relations firm that does more than just sell travel. The advertising I hear from Amtrak is not about what a great job they’re doing—they’re not, but that’s what PR is all about. Perception, perception, and a little bit of laying it on very, very thick. But letting the cat lady next door take Tabby on the train isn’t going to change Amtrak’s image for everybody, just for pet lovers.

America is a nation of transportation lovers. We hit the shores running, moved inland, crossed the continent, and never looked back. We are people who want to go places. Those places won’t be Amtrak stations until Amtrak figures out how to make themselves look a whole lot better to people west of the Mississippi.

© 2016 – C. A. Turek – mistertrains@gmail.com

(Charles A. Turek is a writer and novelist based in Albuquerque, NM. After four decades working in areas of the insurance industry related to transportation, he now writes on all aspects of American railroading.)

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