The North American passenger rail market

Railway Age, March, 2003 by Frank Malone

INTERCITY PASSENGER RAIL SYSTEMS

In early February, Amtrak was waiting for a Congressional conference committee to resolve a $438 million difference between House and Senate proposals for the railroad's FY2003 appropriation. The final figure--$1.05 billion--was enough to keep Amtrak going, said Amtrak president and CEO David Gunn, who had threatened a shutdown without the full $1.2 billion requested.

Among a few bright spots in an uncertain outlook were Amtrak's West Coast operations, including the 170-mile Capitol Corridor service between Oakland and San Jose, which saw its schedule grow from 20 to 22 trains a day in January following an FY2002 ridership increase.

The Corridor is receiving $88 million in track and station improvements, funded by the state of California and communities along the route and managed by the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority. Affecting 45 miles of route, the work will add a second track along a highly constrained Sacramento-Davis segment by late this year. In preliminary design is a third track between Roseville and Auburn. Improvements include real-time message signs at all 16 stations by late spring and extensive platform and track upgrading at Emeryville by fall.

Ridership is up as well for California-supported Pacific Surfliner and San Joaquin services and for the Eugene, Ore.-Vancouvcr, B.C. Cascades, which uses Talgo equipment.

On the East Coast, Amtrak in January introduced a tenth Acela Express roundtrip between Boston and New York and praised these fast trains as the main cause of a dramatic diversion of travelers from planes. Amtrak now claims about 40% of the Boston-New York air/rail market share, more than any single airline.

Also on the high speed front, the Illinois DOT plans to start this summer full field testing of Positive Train Control over 126 miles from Mazonia near the southwestern edge of the Chicago region to Springfield, the state capital, on the state-supported Chicago-St. Louis route. This may lead to 110 mph operation in 2004. Successfully tested recently was the Location Determination System that tracks train position and speed (see "FTC system passes critical test," BA, Jan., p. 16). FTC already governs 90-mph operation over a 45-mile segment of the Chicago-Detroit route in southwestern Michigan.

Equipment shortages on parts of Amtrak's 22,000-mile system have started to ease, following the fall 2002 start of extensive repair and rebuilding being carried out under a Congressional continuing resolution. Heavy repair work had been deferred since 1999, The program includes $100.9 million for 2,547 cars and 50 locomotives at the Beech Grove, Ind. Shop, from where the first two rebuilt Superliner sleeping cars emerged in late January. The plan also covers $40.3 million for 1,642 cars at the Bear, Del., facility.

With C$402 million from the federal government for 2001-2005 capital investment, VIA Rail Canada is making improvements as its trains continue to attract more passengers. VIA's 8,700-mile, 450-community system includes the major corridor of Quebec-Montreal-Toronto-Windsor, which is seeing significant service improvement after a 10% rise in ridership last year. A major example of service upgrading is new Renaissance equipment, namely 139 cars designed for 110 mph and for short-haul business travel and overnight sleeping car service. Delivery started in mid-2002 and will be completed by spring 2004. Besides the Corridor, the Ocean service between Montreal and Halifax will also see this equipment.

The capital program is also modernizing the LRC (Light, Rapid, Comfortable) cars that have been in Corridor service since 1981. This includes updated technology and improved interiors. Also under way are track and signal improvements to ease Corridor speed restrictions. Last year, such work allowed a 25-minute reduction in the Montreal-Ottawa schedule.

Further improvements include stations throughout the VIA network, as seen in the C$1.2 million Fallowfield/Barrhaven facility in west Ottawa that opened in November for the Ottawa-Kingston-Toronto route. Completion of a $10.5 million modernization at Toronto Union Station is set for this summer.

At the request of Canada's Transport Minister, VIA has submitted recommendations for further improvements to the current network.

URBAN RAIL TRANSIT AND REGIONAL/COMMUTER RAIL SYSTEMS

BURLINGTON, VERMONT

Expansion eludes the two-year-old Champlain Flyer regional/commuter service operated by Vermont Transportation Authority, which currently provides about 2,000 trips per week over its 12.5-mile route south from Burlington to Charlotte. Still unfunded are proposals for 24 miles of new rush hour service from Swanton, north of Burlington, to an IBM plant at Essex Junction, which IBM favors, and for extensions from Burlington east to Essex Junction and south to Vergennes, Middlebury, and Rutland.

BOSTON METROPOLITAN AREA

With the nation's oldest subway underpinning a multimodal rail system with 468 route-miles that sees about 836,000 weekday boardings, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) remains in an eminently expansive mood.