The North American passenger rail market - Industry Overview

Railway Age, March, 2001

Plans to operate a daily round trip to Las Vegas using an already purchased Talgo tilting trainset are on hold. The proposal hinges on adding 22 miles of double track on the Union Pacific-owned line in the desert near the California-Nevada border. However, this is the habitat of the desert tortoise, a "threatened species," and until federal agencies approve a mitigation plan, track laying cannot begin.

Another intercity success story is the Amtrak Cascades, a 466-mile corridor stretching from Eugene, Ore., through Portland and Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. Over 525,000 passengers were carried last year on five Talgo tilting trainsets, three owned by Amtrak and two by the State of Washington. A second train began running north of Seattle last year but it turns back at Bellingham, near the border. It won't be extended to Vancouver until the Canadians make track and signal upgrades. There are tentative plans to add one Seattle-Portland schedule annually beginning in mid-2003.

VIA Rail Canada provides service to 450 communities in eight provinces of Canada over some 8,700 route-miles. The system operates 430 trains a week with 70 locomotives and 330 cars. Ridership reached more than 3.9 million passengers and 928 million passenger-miles in 2000. VIA Rail's Quebec City-Windsor corridor accounts for 85% of ridership and 70% of revenues. VIA Rail also operates the tourist-oriented Toronto-Vancouver Western Services; the Montreal-Halifax and Montreal-Gaspe Eastern Services; and the Northern Services, which operate in remote areas of Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.

Last April the Canadian government announced $400 million (C) in capital funding for VIA Rail over the next five years. This is in addition to the government's annual subsidy and will go to fleet renewal, modernized signaling, infrastructure improvements, station refurbishment, and environmental improvements.

Last fall VIA Rail announced the $125 million acquisition of 139 passenger cars from Alstom. Originally built for a Channel Tunnel service that never materialized, the cars should begin to enter service this fall. VIA Rail is buying seven new locomotives from General Motors and expects to contract soon for 21 more.

URBAN AND REGIONAL/COMMUTER SYSTEMS

BURLINGTON, VERMONT

Vermont Transportation Authority became North America's newest regional/commuter rail operator on Dec. 4, 2000, when the Champlain Flyer began operating in a 12.5-mile corridor extending south from Burlington to Shelburne and Charlotte over the state-owned Vermont Railway. The $18 million project was developed as a traffic mitigation measure during the reconstruction of U.S. 7. The service is operated with ten former Virginia Railway Express cars and two locomotives leased from the Vermont Railway, the operator. The feasibility of extending the service eight miles northeast from Burlington to Essex is under study.

BOSTON METROPOLITAN AREA

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) serves an area around Metropolitan Boston comprising 1,038 square miles with a population of 2.6 million. MBTA also provides services to 64 communities outside this operating district. The authority's system includes five light rail routes totaling 28.0 route-miles, a three-route, 37.5 route-mile metro system, and 12 regional/commuter rail routes totaling 402.4 route-miles. Its equipment fleet has 219 LRVs and 12 PCC cars, 408 metro cars, and 50 locomotives and 288 coaches in regional rail service. During 2000 MBTA rail ridership reached 235 million trips.