New Departures: Can passenger trains save the freight railroads? . - Transit Update - "New Departures: Rethinking Rail Passenger Policy in the Twenty-First Century" - book review

Railway Age, March, 2002 by Luther S. Miller

If timing is everything, there's a lot going for Anthony Pen's book, "New Departures: Rethinking Rail Passenger Policy in the Twenty-First Century" (University Press of Kentucky, 334 pp., $29.95, cloth). Its publication date was Feb. 8, the day after the Amtrak Reform Council sent Congress its proposals for splitting up Amtrak and privatizing the pieces. The book also comes along as the debate warms up on the role freight railroads may play in the future of intercity passenger trains.

Perl addresses this question in the final section of his book, "Setting Up the New Model Railroad." The public/private partnerships he proposes are not dissimilar to those suggested by Railway Age Editor William C. Vantuono in the January and February issues of this magazine. Vantuono asked if freight railroads would be willing to operate a national rail passenger system in return for an improved infrastructure provided partly by the federal government (which already pays a large part of the cost of the highways used by truckers, and the airports and air navigation system used by the airlines).

It's tricky turf. Any intrusion by government onto their properties has long been anathema to most railroads, and it still is to some. But times are changing. Pen, who teaches political science at the University of Calgary in Canada and is currently a visiting scholar at the City University of New York's Institute for Urban Studies, takes note of an important shift in thinking that is taking place in some freight railroad boardrooms.

"Under the twin pressures of traffic growth and the higher expectations by shippers for quick and timely delivery to meet tight logistics needs," Perl writes, "American railroads are now beginning to recognize that what traditionally was understood to be their greatest asset, the 'crown jewels' of private infrastructure, is in fact a competitive liability. They have begun to search out, and even act upon, opportunities to modernize their infrastructure in partnership with the public sector."

He describes the exemplary way a public/private sector venture carried out the $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor Project in California, A $44 million bypass for Amtrak and commuter trains is a small part of the 20-mile freight corridor project, but Perl says it is nonetheless "a precedent for mixing public and private funds to develop rail infrastructure that will benefit both freight and passenger operations."

The trust fund is a logical route, because it's one already taken by other transportation modes. The needs of Amtrak are the key to unlocking this opportunity for railroads: Amtrak's tiny fleet of passenger trains is more visible to and cherished by the public than the thousands of freight trains that move over the rails every day.

"Amtrak's role as trustee of these infrastructure investments could be critical to enabling public support for private industry," says Perl. "Opposition to simply investing public funds directly into privately-owned infrastructure would be intense, and quite legitimate. But instead of the political struggle that would certainly accompany an effort to 'nationalize' any railroad's infrastructure prior to public investment, Amtrak could instead take specific responsibility for the improved infrastructure segment. In some cases this might be clear title to the equivalent of an infrastructure 'condominium' (e.g., a new track adjoining one or more privately owned tracks on a right-of-way still owned by the railroad). But in other cases, Amtrak's stake in the upgraded infrastructure might take the form of co-ownership with attendant entitlement to specific slots for passenger operation."

The portion of Perl's work mentioned here is a small part of an informed analysis of where rail passenger operations in the U.S. and Canada have been, where they are, and where they may be going, along with a look at those countries whose passenger trains are light years ahead of ours. "New Starts" comes with the pre-publication endorsements of Tony Hiss, who says the book makes passenger railroading "a solvable problem," and ex-Amtrak President Thomas Downs, who finds in its pages "the best policy framework I have ever seen for making rail passenger investments."