WASHINGTON — Raton Pass may lose the Southwest Chief.
In a 16-slide Power Point presentation he delivered to Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico lawmakers on June 19, Amtrak President Richard Anderson talked about several ways that passenger train service would be cut for the famed mountain route.
Sources familiar with the meeting say Anderson used the gathering to explain the cut in the context of a $3 million match to a $16 million federal Transportation Infrastructure Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant won by Colfax County, N.M., that would continue rehabilitation of the Southwest Chief’s route. Amtrak declined the apply the $3 million.
Anderson said he offered “service modification scenarios” under which communities served by the Chicago-to-Los Angeles train would not lose service if Amtrak stopped traversing what Anderson calls the “sole use segment” between Trinidad, Colo., and Albuquerque, N.M.
They include:
•A Los Angeles to Albuquerque rail segment — daylight or overnight train
•A bus bridge between La Junta, Colo., or Dodge City, Kan.
•An overnight or daylight train between La Junta or Dodge City and Chicago.
The statement on one of the final slides that “Amtrak will share these alternatives and possible implementation schedules with Congress and other stakeholders this summer” indicates that Amtrak intends to make changes on the route because that is its prerogative.
A letter from 11 federal legislators reacting to an April letter from Amtrak urging Anderson to supply the match prompted Anderson’s presentation. Trains News Wire is attempting to confirm exactly who attended the meeting.
In a document that purports to present a dispassionate view of the Southwest Chief’s performance, only fully allocated costs — not revenue — are discussed, and like the earlier letter, it never mentions passenger-miles or makes any attempt to explain what expenses contributed to a $55,969,969 “FY 17 Ops loss” it says the train incurred.
Ironically, the presentation also puts the cost of a “5-year capital plan” at $30 million to $50 million” even though Amtrak’s $3 million match would leverage the $16 million federal money, plus more than $6 million from communities and other stakeholders, including BNSF Railway, which has agreed to maintain rehabilitated trackage for 20 years.
As outlined in Trains August 2018 Passenger column, “Southwest Chief at risk?” the train ranked fifth among all Amtrak corridors and route in passenger-miles (over 313 million in 2017) and delivered revenues of $43.5 million. Of this, $19.7 million was sleeping-car revenue, which would virtually disappear if passengers are subjected to a mid-route bus ride in “dedicated, high-quality, Amtrak chartered bus service” that was touted in the presentation.
“This is the first time that a management team has ever come out against continuing services Amtrak currently provides; they are ready to take apart the long distance system,” former Amtrak president David Gunn told Trains News Wire earlier this month.
Indeed, Anderson’s presentation ranked every long-distance train in three categories: ridership, operating loss, and loss per rider, but not revenue or passenger-miles. This potentially sets the stage for a truncation strategy of other routes, even though Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Gardner told a Washington hearing last month that the company had no plans to alter its current route structure in future authorizations.
Colorado Rail Passenger Association president Jim Souby, who also viewed the presentation, noted that it “dodges the issue of who is on the train and where they are going” in a “Southwest Chief Ridership Across Route Portions” table that subdivides travel within and between west, central, and east segments arbitrarily divided at Albuquerque and Hutchinson, Kan.
“It’s dishonorable and dishonest,” ex-Amtrak president Joe Boardman told Trains News Wire after it was forwarded to him.
Trains News Wire has asked for further clarifications from Amtrak, but the company had yet to respond as of 2 p.m. Central time.
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