Millennials Bounce Ideas Off of Amtrak Official

Because our private cars could not be parked in Milwaukee nor easily taken back there from Chicago to pick us up, the Millennial Trains Project (MTP) participants and crew traveled to Chicago this morning aboard a reserved Horizon coach car on Amtrak’s 8:05 AM Hiawatha departure from Milwaukee’s Intermodal Center. For the entirety of the nearly two-hour ride south to the nation’s rail hub, we were joined by Chicago-based Amtrak Government Affairs Specialist for the Midwest Region Charlie Monte Verde for an exchange of ideas about Amtrak’s future. 

Monte Verde gave a brief, general overview of Amtrak’s system, history and operating environment. He also introduced us to the train’s conductor (who stood behind him for the entire discussion) and explained the role of each of the crew members on board. He acknowledged that Amtrak in general, and the long-distance trains in particular, has been a perennial political football and has suffered from the lack of a dedicated, multi-year source of funding like the other transportation modes enjoy. He handed out a map of the current Amtrak system, attached to one showing what the “system” (if one could call it that) would look like if the long-distance trains were discontinued. While Monte Verde emphasized that the short-distance, state-supported corridor routes are where Amtrak sees the biggest growth potential in the near term, he also expressed a desire to see momentum build to grow the long-distance network. He applauded MTP for demonstrating the power of purpose-focused long-distance train trips to foster dialogue on a national scale and offer an unparalleled perspective on the contours of the American landscape — both natural and human-built.

MTP founder Patrick Dowd then asked Monte Verde if he wouldn’t mind opening up a dialogue and hearing each of the MTP participants express what he or she thinks Amtrak is and one thing Amtrak should do. The general theme of most participants’ comments was that Amtrak should market its offerings better, and make train travel feel more like the special experience that it is — something that people would be willing to pay a small premium for. There were also suggestions that Amtrak allow bicycles to be carried on to more routes (something the company is working on slowly, given limited resources), that cleaner or renewable sources of power should be used for locomotives, and that the railroad’s website be more more aesthetically pleasing and evocative of the train journey experience. Many called on Amtrak to be more innovative in areas such as food service, where a greater variety of locally-sourced and artisanal foods and beverages could be offered on board.

I was heartened to hear some of the MTP participants’ descriptions of the value of train travel based on their journeys. “Amtrak is the great American adventure,” said Pakistani Fulbright student Anser Shaukat. “I’ve heard it said that life is about the journey, not the destination. If that’s true, then Amtrak is life.” David Melo of 3D Systems said passenger rail is “one of the future transportation methods that will evolve.” Jessica Lee-Anne Meyer called the train “way more comfortable that I thought it would be.” MTP Outreach and Hospitality Director Leslie Gahagan called looking out the train window a form of entertainment.  Ayla Boyle says she wants to take the train as much as possible, but it needs to be more punctual. Michaela Hall said that the sleeping and dome cars allowed her to see the train as a vacation, and to meet new people. Acasia Olson said Amtrak was a waymaker for her, as the company gave her a small “scholarship” that allowed her to ride the Crescent free between her home in Atlanta and Washington, DC and New York. 

Meyer and Melo both said Amtrak’s advertising should better compare the train experience and price with driving head-to-head. Sarah Smith, Brandi Harvey and Phoenix Ruach-Shaddai said Amtrak should focus on top-notch hospitality to make it a “glamorous” experience that makes the traveler “feel special.”  Ruach-Shaddai emphasized getting the basics right, such as reliable WiFi, will help Amtrak defend its value proposition when going head-to-head with low-cost intercity buses. Acasia Olson suggested turning trains into art projects, and running special party trains. 

My own comments expressed sympathy with these great ideas, but reiterated that there’s a major political hurdle to be overcome before Amtrak is in a position to try novel concepts in marketing or on-board services — particularly those which cost money, which is the vast majority of them. The root of the problem runs deep in America’s railroad history, where railroads’ power as America’s first national-scale big business engendered deep mistrust of them amongst the public, which led to them being taxed and heavily regulated, while roads and later air travel — seen as symbols of freedom from the shackles of railroads’ schedules and fares — came to be treated as public goods whose subsidization is not a matter of controversy. To overcome this dichotomy, and give passenger trains the level of public endowment that they deserve — and which is necessary to leverage the investment of a risk-averse private sector through public-private partnerships — a concerted political push needs to be made. Therefore, I am of the mind that the innovation in the passenger rail space needs to come in the advocacy arena, and then expand into the service delivery and marketing arenas. 

After participants had five hours in Chicago to work on their projects — or just explore and sightsee — we gathered back on the private cars, parked in the coach yard beneath the Roosevelt Avenue overpass several blocks south of Union Station for a discussion on the importance of curbing the dominance of moneyed special interests in politics, led by Barbara Lawton of the Fund for the Republic (former Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin) and Szelena Gray of the Mayday Super PAC ("the Super PAC to end all Super PACs"), both nonpartisan organizations.  The speakers emphasized that the ability of every participant to effect the kind of change he or she wishes to see in the world depends on enacting reforms that return power back to ordinary citizens rather than those with deep pockets and narrow agendas. 

They asked us to join the movement to enact public campaign financing mechanisms, whereby candidates who opt in would accept strict limits on private contributions to their campaigns in exchange for receiving enough public funds to run effective campaigns. This would allow candidates to focus on voters and issues rather than raising money, while serving to lower the overall cost of elections. After hearing Lawton and Gray’s talk, I’m starting to think that broad reforms of the American political process like this may need to take place before the gridlock in which transportation funding is caught, and that is stymieing passenger trains’ potential, might be broken through.