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As theoretical summer draws to a close, some of the worst news I can think of for the rail enthusiast comes from Amtrak. Where else would it come from? you might ask. Your feelings are true and deep. Amtrak has been the cost-cutter extraordinaire for the past year or so, pulling the rug out from under many, if not most things that were sacred to rail travelers when Joe Boardman was still Amtrak's CEO. Now it's officially the dome car.
Not that Amtrak was really a place where you could ride one. The single remaining unit, as reported by Bob Johnston for Trains had not been used for some time, and earlier examples had already long ago left the Amtrak roster. Nonetheless, it's just sad. I cry to think that my grandchildren may never get to ride a dome, or any passenger train with the thrill the dome afforded--unless one of them goes to work for a freight railroad that has one, because there are still many in use in the private car fleets of those so-called Amtrak hosts..
Other bad news is that our national passenger rail carrier probably no longer has enough passenger cars to participate in any meaningful storm evacuation. As Hurricane Dorian leaves the Bahamas and continues its battering of the Southeast Atlantic Coast, there is no word that Amtrak can or will position its passenger equipment for evacuation of people. Instead, the railroad is doing what airlines do when widespread disaster threatens: Trains will be cancelled until further notice.
This gives the appearance that Amtrak management would not be willing to use its equipment for evacuations even if the costs were covered by emergency funding. But to be fair, the cooler heads in D.C. and the state capitals haven't even suggested this. Road evacuation is their fallback and Amtrak isn't even a blip on the radar. This is understandable in light of Amtrak's shedding of all excess passenger equipment and reluctance to own or maintain a fleet with any redundancy beyond what is required by law and train schedules. In my opinion, head-in-the-sand management over there cannot see that to demonstrate its value in an emergency may just get Amtrak the extra funding it needs each and every year. What the current attitude demonstrates is that government will have to fund more highway lanes in anticipation of the next disaster.
Dorian is still churning as I write this. I hope everyone gets by okay and doesn't need the train or the over stressed highways. . . or a boat. Pray to God the thing just turns out to sea and dies out, and that Amtrak's management turns a corner before Amtrak, too, dies out.
©2019 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
