Copyright 2000 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
February 14, 2000 Monday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 1001 words
HEADLINE:
Hauling freight could become Amtrak's moneymaking answer;
Some competitors
and passenger advocates wary
BYLINE: LARRY SANDLER of
the Journal Sentinel staff
BODY:
Amtrak believes
one way to save passenger trains could be to turn them partly
into freight trains.
It's an idea that bothers
passenger advocates and some freight railroads
alike. But it's one of the few options open to an organization under orders to
break even in a business that hasn't turned a profit in decades.
And in
Wisconsin, it means that new passenger trains could be running from Madison and
Janesville to Chicago and from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac as early as this year.
As Amtrak faces a congressional deadline to wean itself from federal subsidies
by Oct. 1, 2002, a key part of its strategy is to earn more money from carrying
mail and express freight on passenger trains.
That's a concept that
dates back to the days when freight railroads ran passenger trains, and Amtrak
has had the same right since it was formed in 1971.
As long as Amtrak
was carrying mainly mail and small packages, it didn't bother freight railroads,
who by law must allow Amtrak to run on their tracks. Amtrak even calls the
business simply "express," omitting the word "freight" to avoid offending the
freight railroads.
But when a Texas brewery wanted to use refrigerated
cars on Amtrak trains to ship its beer faster than trucks or regular freight
trains could deliver, the freight railroads complained Amtrak was overstepping
its bounds. The federal Surface Transportation Board ruled in Amtrak's favor in
May 1998, clearing the way for the express freight business to expand.
By August of that year, Amtrak's monthly express freight revenue had
nearly doubled. Its business plan now calls for express freight revenue to grow
from $6.8 million in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1998, to
$94.8 million in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2002 -- a
near 14-fold increase in four years.
"We are bullish about marketing the
business," Amtrak President George Warrington said through a spokesman. "We know
we can compete by offering a better service at a lower price."
Serving
express freight customers also has given Amtrak a way to add routes that might
not be economically feasible if they were carrying passengers alone.
In
Wisconsin, Amtrak has studied two routes for passenger and express freight
trains: one from Madison and Janesville to Chicago along the Wisconsin &
Southern Railroad tracks, and one from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac along the
Wisconsin Central Ltd. tracks.
Amtrak is now in negotiations with
Wisconsin & Southern on the Madison-to-Chicago route, said Bill Gardner,
chief executive officer of the Milwaukee-based freight railroad. Those talks
could be completed within two months, and if the parties reach agreement,
service could start a month later, he said.
The trains would be operated
directly by Amtrak on the current tracks, which have a 35-mph speed limit
between Madison and Fox Lake, Ill., Gardner said. His company originally sought
to run the trains itself and had pushed for a $75 million
upgrade to boost the speed limit on that stretch of track, which is owned by the
State of Wisconsin.
A Wisconsin Central spokeswoman referred all
questions about the Milwaukee-to-Fond du Lac line to Amtrak.
Amtrak
spokesmen said they could not comment until later this month, when the railroad
releases a nationwide market analysis of how to revise its routes to increase
its market share and improve its finances.
But passenger advocates warn
that a strategy helping Amtrak's bottom line could actually detract from its
core business of serving passengers.
That's because the schedules most
convenient for express freight customers are not necessarily the schedules most
convenient for passengers, and dealing with freight cars can slow down passenger
trains, warn Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Rail
Passengers, and Tony Haswell, the association's founder.
One example is
Amtrak's new Kentucky Cardinal service, from Chicago to Louisville, Ky.
While it provides passenger rail service to a major city that hasn't had
any for years, the Kentucky Cardinal runs as a branch of Amtrak's red-eye
Chicago-to-Indianapolis line, leaving Chicago at 8:10 p.m. daily and arriving in
Louisville at 8:40 a.m. the next day. The return trip leaves Louisville at 10:25
p.m. daily and arrives in Chicago at 10:05 a.m. the next day.
At 11
hours 30 minutes, the Kentucky Cardinal takes about twice as long as the fastest
Chicago-to-Louisville train in 1952, says Joe Vranich, author of "Derailed," a
book critical of Amtrak.
Vranich, of Irvine, Calif., serves on the
Amtrak Reform Council, a bipartisan body monitoring Amtrak's progress toward
self-sufficiency. He and Haswell, a retired attorney in Tucson, N.M., were among
Amtrak's earliest supporters but now have turned into critics.
Debbie
Hare, an Amtrak spokeswoman in Chicago, said, "There's definitely an impact on
our service (from express freight), and it's overwhelmingly favorable."
Hare cited the Kentucky Cardinal and the extension of two other trains
from Pittsburgh to Chicago as examples of how the express freight business
allows Amtrak to add service.
She conceded the Kentucky Cardinal "is not
the fastest service." But she said speeding up the train to arrive at 5 a.m.
would be less convenient for overnight passengers, because they wouldn't get
enough sleep.
Amtrak has adjusted some schedules to accommodate express
freight, but when those schedule changes inconvenience passengers, they're
rescinded, Hare said. That happened recently on the Chicago-to-Los Angeles Texas
Eagle, she said.
"Passenger service is our core business. That's what
Amtrak is in business to provide," Hare said. Carrying express freight "is not
seen as an end. It's seen as a means to an end," she added.
Still,
Amtrak leaves no doubt about how important express freight is to achieving its
ends.
"Clearly, developing the mail and express (freight) businesses is
critical for supporting a viable national passenger rail network," the railroad
says in its strategic business plan.
LOAD-DATE: May 18,
2000 
