(The following article by Adam Jackson was posted on the South Bend Tribune website on January 18.)
NILES, Mich. — There have been more romantic names for trains than Michigan Services.
Like the opulent 20th Century Limited that once hauled pampered passengers from coast to coast in a cloud of comfort suspended over steel rails. Or the famous City of New Orleans, immortalized in a popular folk song.
But Michigan Services, Amtrak’s Chicago-to-Detroit workhorse, is no less important than those fabled rides to people like 22-year-old Kelly Stanton of Southfield, Mich., who uses the route to come to visit old college friends in southwest Michigan.
“To start with, I hate to drive,” she said. “On the train, I can just relax and watch the world go by.
“And I haven’t even been in an airport since 9/11,” Stanton said.
Whether they are railroad diehards or first-time riders looking for transportation without the hassles of modern air travel, ridership is up in many areas of Amtrak, the nationwide passenger railroad service.
Facing imminent financial disaster just two years ago, the railroad is moving into a period of cautious optimism under the no-nonsense leadership of David Gunn, a noted passenger rail problem-solver tapped to bring Amtrak back from the brink.
When the train comes to town
The change in fortunes have not gone unnoticed among local leaders in southwest Michigan, especially in areas located on the Chicago-to-Detroit line.
In Niles, which serves as a stop for four trains daily in each direction, City Administrator Terry Eull said what’s good for Amtrak is good for the city.
“I want to be optimistic about this,” Eull said. “We’ve always felt that Amtrak is a great asset to the city.”
Having access to passenger rail, he explained, is a convenience for city relatives and their friends and family, providing a viable alternative to auto and air travel. It’s an alternative Eull said he has taken advantage of in the past, when working on a project that involved travel to Detroit.
What’s more, rail is an economic stimulant to an area, especially,
Eull said, if it can provide an avenue for local residents to commute to high-paying jobs in distant areas, such as Chicago. That’s why local leaders are excited about the concept of a high-speed rail line between Detroit and Chicago, which would turn the corridor into a viable resource for commuters.
Eull said despite Amtrak’s troubles, he believes that the high-speed project will eventually come to fruition.
“I do believe (high-speed rail) will happen,” he said. “When it will happen is beyond my crystal ball.”
Amtrak from the ashes
Many believe that if anyone can continue to breathe new life into the south Michigan rail corridor, it is Amtrak CEO David Gunn.
A Harvard University graduate and former Naval Reserve officer, the wiry, silver-haired manager came out of retirement in May 2002 to take the helm of an Amtrak that was just days from being unable to meet payroll.
The problem, Gunn said, stemmed from bloated management ranks and pie-in-the-sky promises to Congress that Amtrak could be weaned from federal subsidies. Add to that some very basic problems involving poorly maintained equipment and wasteful purchasing, and the future of the whole organization fell into question.
Gunn, however, had an answer to that question — common sense. The same common sense that led him to complete turnarounds of the New York City Transit Authority in the late 1980s, and the Toronto Transit Commission in the 1990s. And the common sense that makes his personal vehicle a Ford F-150 pickup with cloth seats and a standard transmission, even though his bank account could easily bear a flashier vehicle.
When he was handed Amtrak, Gunn needed that common sense.
“We had to get the organization back to a functionally good plan,” he said. “You want to have an extremely well-defined organization right down to the station agent.”
That is exactly the organization Gunn proceeded to build.
After securing emergency funding to meet payroll and operating expenses in the summer of 2002, the CEO began a wholesale cleaning of management ranks, wading through a sea of employees with vice-president titles to find the solid leaders he needed for the new Amtrak.
Then, he turned to the system.
Combing the warehouses for materials ordered for projects that never happened under the previous management, Gunn was able to begin a program designed to fix badly neglected infrastructure. Tracks were repaired, cars were fixed and returned to service, and maintenance intervals on equipment were shortened, making for better reliability.
“We were able to do a hell of a lot,” Gunn said. “Before, nothing ever got done until something failed.
“The trick is to take care of the problem before that happens.”
Light at the end of the tunnel
The changes appear to be working.
Gunn said ridership is reaching new highs, and said Amtrak now has a five-year capital plan to move forward. But the government has to cooperate. And that means funding.
With a subsistence-level federal subsidy of $1.2 billion looking to be the reality for the 2004 fiscal year, the railroad should at least be able to maintain solvency.
“It’s not what we asked for, and it’s not enough to do what we planned,” he said. “But it will keep up what we have now.
“There’s a general feeling we are making progress.”
Subsidizing service
But Gunn has a message for politicians who think Amtrak should be self-sufficient — it won’t happen. Without support from not only the federal government, but also individual states, Amtrak will be on a dead-end road.
“This idea that Amtrak can become profitable; they need to get over it,” he said. “If (Congress) doesn’t want (Amtrak), they can kill it, but we need to be subsidized to continue.”
Fortunately, there are elected officials across the country who understand that.
One of those officials is U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, a St. Joseph Republican who has been a backer of Amtrak service in the region for years.
“Amtrak cannot survive without a subsidy,” he said. “I don’t think the airlines could survive without one, either.”
Upton, an Amtrak rider, said he will continue to work toward financial support for the railroad, as he feels it is a strong asset to his constituency.
He said he is happy that Gunn was tapped to take over the organization, and believes the change in leadership could eventually translate to stronger service for southwest Michigan and northern Indiana.
“I hear great things about (Gunn),” he said. “He’s not a status-quo guy; he knew things had to be changed.
“I think Gunn has been the right guy to make some tough decisions,” Upton said.
The future
While the expected funding levels for the new fiscal year won’t mean immediate and drastic changes in the Chicago-to-Detroit corridor, there are already stirrings of a bright new future for the railroad. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said testing is currently under way on a satellite-based system that, when approved by federal authorities, could allow the railroad to increase the speed of existing trains through the region.
Also, plans are currently being discussed to increase the frequency of trains through the area, making more convenient schedules for regular passengers. With ridership levels rising, Upton is convinced the demand is there.
“The Chicago-to-Detroit corridor is one of the heavier air traffic routes,” he said. “And people are using Amtrak more and more.”