When did running a railroad become optional?

As the last flake fall on what clearly was a historic winter storm in New England, I have to ask a historian's question: At what point in the relatively recent past did it become optional for Amtrak and other entities to run passenger trains? This is not a snarky question. It is a serious strategic issue.

I am old enough to have ridden pre-Amtrak trains, and to have a vague cultural memory that when other modes of transportation shut down because of inclement weather, at least you could depend on the railroad as a reliable backbone of a transportation network.

This may be specific to the Northeast Corridor owned/and or controlled by Amtrak and regional transportation authorities. Whatever happens out on the freight network unfolds according to a different logic and set of circumstances.

I think we first need to look at the cynical and manipulative “weather industry.” Understanding the weather is critical to all sorts of logistics providers, commercial activities, and even marketers and cultural promoters of various sorts. Weather prediction has gotten reliable enough to be factored in as just one more variable.

But then there is the weather infotainment industry  - the outfits that can't wait to stir up anxiety and concern as a way to sell ad space and generate revenue. I have in mind one channel that used to be reasonably reliable -- but now seems to be a parody of promotion and exemplar of corporate shilling. The problem is, these media outfits distort reality in all sorts of ways.

But the clowns on TV showing off their chops by reporting from snow-pelted roadsides are merely symptoms of a larger problem: Why have we become such weather weenies? And why is it no longer possible for Amtrak and other railroads in the Northeast to move a little snow and operate at least a skeleton service when it seems to be most needed?

In the old days -- and the “Old Days” were only 40 or so years ago -- my recollection is that it took a truly extraordinary weather event to halt railroad passenger service. The carriers involved tried their best to maintain at least a basic level of transportation because that was what railroading was all about. Trains could run when airplanes could not fly or cars safely navigate slippery roads.

I’ll go so far as to suggest that there was an implicit understanding: Even in the worst weather, you could head to Penn Station in New York with the reasonable expectation of getting to Boston. You might be a little late, but a foot or two of snow was no real match for the New Haven.

Apparently today -- and despite the investment of billions of dollars -- the system is much more fragile. Amtrak and other operators canceled all sorts of trains in advance of the recent storm. Their argument was that it was better to strand people pre-emptively, rather than strand them for real because the railroad wasn't robust enough to deal with a storm predicted a week ago.

Am I the only one scratching his head in disbelief? Are we headed back to a mid-19th century style of railroading, when trains reliably ran only in daylight, fair weather, and not on Sundays?

I understand that there are issues of safety, reliability, and capacity. I am acutely aware of all the things that can go wrong in bad weather out on the railroad. And I am especially aware that Amtrak is a modest corporate entity of modest abilities. In that situation, it is always better to lower expectations and blend in with the landscape. Cancelling a few hundred trains pales in comparison with the airlines canceling a couple thousand flights.

But here is an alternate take: What if Amtrak and its regional operating partners instead took the position that they actually knew how to run trains in all weathers -- sort of like they used to. What if travelers understood that they might be delayed and might be inconvenienced -- but that if they got on board a train, they would get to where they were going?

What if Amtrak and the other operators emphasized the fact that “the Railroad” is, in fact, a robust, proven, reliable transportation system with 185 years of experience with foul weather and operating complications?

It is easy to second guess front line operating folks who would be responsible for keeping the trains running in a storm of historic proportions. In today's political and social environment, it is surely easier to be prudent, shut things down ahead of time, and redefine expectations. There are fewer and fewer Old Farts like me who think it possible to plow snow on the railroad and get trains through.

But there is a bigger question. Especially in the Northeast, where millions of people depend on railroad transportation every day, is this kind of preemptive shut down acceptable? If this is the one network with the infrastructure and ability to provide mobility when streets are clogged, airports shut down, and other options foreclosed, should we expect more than bureaucratic cowardice?

They don't have to run on time. But I’ll suggest that we at least ask them to run as best they can -- and that we give Amtrak and other operators the resources to make it happen. This wasn't the last Big Snow the Northeast will see. And there may be other situations in which we need a robust, agile, responsive way to move lots of people to where they need to go under challenging circumstances.  

We clearly don't have that now.