(The following article by Aesha Rasheed was posted on the Times- Picayune website on January 15.)
NEW ORLEANS — With ridership at a 32-year peak, Amtrak is on firmer footing but still not entirely safe from forces in Washington that would like to see the passenger rail company dismantled, President and Chief Executive Officer David Gunn said during a visit to New Orleans on Wednesday.
“It’s a lot easier to defend full trains,” he said. But there will always be those on Capitol Hill who think the trains are an unnecessary luxury in the cash-poor federal budget.
Last year, the Bush administration unveiled a plan to break up Amtrak, officially known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp., and privatize all lines except the heavily used Northeast routes. Under the plan, the lines would continue to be supported by some federal subsidies but financial responsibility for the rail lines would gradually shift to the states.
To fend off such proposals and win continued federal support, Amtrak must prove it is viable and continue the financial turnaround already under way, he said. The rail company will also need support from cities such as New Orleans that rely on Amtrak’s long-distance lines for rail service.
New Orleans is served by the Crescent, which travels daily to New York through Washington; the City of New Orleans, which makes daily trips to Chicago; and the Sunset Limited, which runs between Los Angeles and Orlando. All three long-distance lines saw substantial increases in ridership over the past year, and the City of New Orleans posted some of Amtrak’s greatest gains, boosting ridership by 15 percent.
Last year, 24 million passengers rode an Amtrak train, up 2.7 percent compared to the previous year and topping the company’s 2001 record of 23.5 million passengers.
No single factor can account for the increase in riders, which Gunn attributed partly to rider-friendly changes to Amtrak trains and pricing policies, and partly to travel woes brought on by the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Passengers don’t have the same security hassles,” on trains, Gunn said. Security changes at rail stations are less visible than those at airports.
Gunn said coordination has also been key to Amtrak’s apparent turnaround and is a must for the company’s future. Gunn has begun a massive effort to update and overhaul Amtrak engines, cars and tracks, shifting energy away from short-term maintenance. Preventing breakdowns before they are crippling saves cost and cuts down on delays and instability, he said.
“There are a lot fewer people standing around with duct tape,” he said.
As he walked alongside the Sunset Express on Wednesday, stopping at one point to pick up a discarded, crusty soup spoon, Gunn schmoozed with passengers and chatted up rail workers, many of whom he knew by name. He makes a habit of traveling on his company’s trains and visiting rail stations to “make sure that everybody’s singing to the same hymnbook,” he said.