Would Amtrak benefit from entering high priority freight service?
It's been tried before. While George Warrington was president of Amtrak, a mail and express initiative was attempted as part of a "glide path to profitability". While it did generate additional revenue, much of that additional revenue was absorbed by the additional expenses involved.
the answer is absolutely not it requires capital investment and amtrak has capital investment needs that are more relavent to its various government mandated missions ups and fedex do a fine job of priority freight transportation and a government subsidized competitor is not needed in the usa market
i fail to understand what motivates the question
do you have a problem with existing services
or don't you understand that the railroads' obligation to provide cross-the-board transportation services went out the window with the invention of the auto and the use of paved highways and streets.
From what I recall, the freight railroads weren't too pleased with giving priorty routing to those 40-car long Amtrak "passenger" trains that were comprised of 38 freight cars.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Zugmann remembers it exactly right. And when Warrington started talking about hauling stuff like furniture, U.P.'s irritation with Amtrak turned to outright hostility. "That's our freight they're talking about," said a U.P. official, in a Trains story.
Many would say that if Amtrak were to venture into high priority freight, it would exceed its authority given in the various governing laws (starting with the chartering act of 1971).
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
No there was case law when Amtrak did haul freight dating to REA. AND NO Amtrak was not stealing railroads freight. Railroads ONLY haul Carload Lots and only under Contract. Amtrak was hauling LTL which Freight Railroads wont touch with a 10 foot pole.
I'm not sure what you're getting at.
First, you asked if Amtrak would benefit from more competition (as if that would help). Then you wondered about privatization, which is what we had pre-Amtrak. Now it's freight, for a Company whose legal raison d'etre is passenger service. These poor dead horses have been beaten too much too often by too many already.
Tom
zugmann From what I recall, the freight railroads weren't too pleased with giving priorty routing to those 40-car long Amtrak "passenger" trains that were comprised of 38 freight cars.
I remember riding the Three Rivers from Chicago to Pittsburgh. The time I rode it the train had two coaches, a cafe/lounge car and a sleeper. Although I don't remember how many head-end cars it had, it seemed like there were 15 to 20 of them.
Successful commercial enterprises know their core mission (business purpose) and competencies. They keep their focus on them. Many failed businesses lose sight of their mission and their core competencies. Frequently they spread themselves too thin.
Outside of the NEC, as well as several corridors, Amtrak has not been a successful commercial enterprise. It has lost more than $30 billion, before adjustment for inflation, since its birth. A major reason is because it has been forced for political reasons to focus its energies too broadly. Getting into any kind of package or freight service would dissipate its focus even more than is the case now.
ACY I'm not sure what you're getting at. First, you asked if Amtrak would benefit from more competition (as if that would help). Then you wondered about privatization, which is what we had pre-Amtrak. Now it's freight, for a Company whose legal raison d'etre is passenger service. These poor dead horses have been beaten too much too often by too many already. Tom
Tom, the originator of this post, zkr123, has only been a member here for a fairly short time, and has been asking a fair number of questions. Perhaps he/she is trying to explore and learn from the rest of us, in a maaner that is much easier than trying to search the site for previous, similar discussions.
If you know of some previous relevent threads, post them here. And maybe give the person a little bit of a break. We were all new at one time or another. Let us not be so harsh as to discourage a newcomer.
to find relevant past threads i suggest you use whatever search facilities are currently available in the new look forum, and there was much discussion in the past on material handling cars, on amtrak's entrance and departure froml the priority freight business, reasons, etc. i agree we should welcome newcomers to the forum. at the same time, questions might best be really meanfull and real-world oriented. you would not want a newcomer to ask should amtrak get into the steamship or airline business, to push the point to an extreme, and remember railroads were involved in both at one time. questions like privatizing dining cars or sleepers or seem relavent to me as questions remember what the purpose of amtrak's inauguration really was, and questions about it might have more relavence.
If a private company wants to add a car to an Amtrak train for $2.00 per mile (private passenger car rate) why not. Whether it carries l.c.l, freight, autos, express, flowers or vegtables who cares? If they provide the capital, marketing etc the only reponsibility of Amtrak is to lease more motive power. If it cuts loses that is a good thing.
Point taken. I should be more patient & understanding. I guess I've spent too many years making the same arguments. So let's pretend I got a dope-slap, and we can move on.
The freight railroads did not go along with Amtrak hauling any type of freight including mail . plus it created all kinds of operational issues. I can remember the west bound lake shore arriving Albany on time and leaving an hour or more late due to cutting the mail cars in. Same issue in Chicago where they stopped just short of union station to cut them off. Amtrak was created (lol) to be a passenger operation. Not a leave it to beaver era railroad.
One change that was necessary was that the California Zephyr terminate in Emeryville (where it not stopped before) rather than Oakland, because the train was too long to stop between street crossings in Oakland. The Coast Starlight stops in both places, and it is longer than theZephyr. And, Amtrak has bus service to/from San Francisco in connection with the Starlight .
Johnny
We should welcome all new comers and their questions to Train's forums, etc.
Many of the people who participate in the forums, etc. are geezers, including yours truly. There is a pretty high probability that many of us will be gone in a few years. As in off the face of the earth! Or at least six feet under it.
If the rail fan community does not attract and retain new blood, Trains and like kind publications will become a thing of the past.
Another point consider is railroads never handled more than a few head end cars on thier premier trains. You never see the silver meoter, the empire builder or 20 the century ltd hauling LCL or long strings of mail cars. Most railroads had secondary or dedicated mail/express trains for that purpose. Railroads took care of thier passengers and provided fast service on thier passenger trains.
One last point, Amtrak does offer package express between its manned stations with trains with baggage cars. This service is a slimed down version of what the rea used to do minus door to door service via rea delivery trucks.
This is not a widely known service. Anyone have experience using it?
daveklepper This is not a widely known service. Anyone have experience using it?
Information re: Amtrak's Express Shipping can be found on the company's webpage under Policies > Baggage Policy and Service. Actually, I found it by typing package shipping in the Ask Julie box and was directed to the site.
The service is offered between 100 cities. The policy does not say anything about shipments being restricted to trains with baggage cars; however, I presume it would have to be at least a coach/baggage car.
Several years ago I looked into shipping my bicycle from Dallas to Tucson on the Texas Eagle. The Eagle only has a coach/baggage car; it does not have a full length baggage car.
I decided against it because it is easier to put the bicycle on the back of my car and drive to Tucson. However, if one does not want to drive from Dallas to Tucson, as an example, he or she can get a box from Amtrak, box up the bike, and ship it for not a lot of money. The biggest drawback, at least when I checked into it, was the need to remove the pedals, turn the handlebars parallel to the frame, which usually means loosening one of the brake cables, and getting the box to the station.
Pretty sure it is restricted to trains offering checked baggage and at a maned station...could be wrong.
Under "Travel Information," the public timetable describes Amtrak Express, which offers Small package shipments, Heavy and commercial shipments, and Mortuary services. There is a description of each category.
"For more information about rates, transit times and acceptable items, call Amtrak Express desk at 1-800-377-6914, Mondays thorugh Fridays, 8:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Eastern time."
Thanks johnny
The public timetable shows an increase to 100 lbs and 4ft x 4ft x 4ft on non-palletized items, which is not yet reflected on the hard to find page on the internet. Palletized items remain the same at 500 lbs, but you will have to call Amtrak to find out which stations can handle all of these heavier items. A short while back, Amtrak contracted with someone to haul items on the Southwest Chief, but I haven't seen anything further.
I think VIA offers this service also. A friend of mine who just retired from VIA used to ship things fairly often. Might have been only for employees, though.
I forgot amtrak shipped dead bodies.
zkr123 I forgot amtrak shipped dead bodies.
To be fair, they weren't like that when they got on. The train just got delayed a bit..
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