(The following article by Robert Cohen was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on June 29.)
WASHINGTON — The prolonged sidelining of Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains between Washington and Boston is costing the financially ailing railroad dearly in both money and passengers.
Amtrak officials said they have been losing an extra $1 million a week in revenue and have seen a sizable drop in ridership — about 20,000 a week — since they found cracks in the Acela’s brake disks and took all of the sleek trains out of service April 15.
The continued problems with the Acela come as Amtrak faces a major test in the House this week. As early as today, the Republican leadership will bring an appropriations bill to the floor that would slash the railroad’s federal subsidy from the $1.2 billion it received this year to $550 million for 2006.
Amtrak has said it needs $1.8 billion next year — a $600 million boost — to avoid bankruptcy and institute needed reforms. Amtrak president David Gunn said that if the $550 million funding proposal is ratified by both the House and Senate, it will mean “the termination of all intercity passenger rail service.”
Rep. Robert Menendez (D-13th Dist.), who hopes to get the funding increased, said Gunn’s statement is “not hyperbole, and it’s not a scare tactic. It is simple financial truth.”
Proponents of the funding cuts want to see the national railroad privatized and broken up into smaller regional units.
As it fights the larger political battle for its survival, Amtrak is struggling to restore service on its premier Acela trains, which in the past few years have generated about 20 percent of the rail line’s ticket sales.
When running, the 20 Acela trains can reach speeds up to 150 mph as they cruise up and down the Northeast Corridor. They provide a premium-class service for a higher fare than regular Amtrak trains, largely for business travelers seeking a direct downtown-to-downtown connection.
Amtrak spokesman Clifford Black said there “seems to be cause for optimism” that the railroad will soon “come up with a fix” that could allow a limited number of Acela trains to be put back in service sometime next month.
But complete restoration of all 20 Acela trains, said Black, will not take place until sometime in the fall.
Black said that in May, the first full month the Acela was out of service, Amtrak ridership along the Northeast Corridor was down about 7 percent or about 80,000 passengers compared to the same time last year.
“We have had fewer passengers and lower fares from those who remained,” said Black. “The trend in June seems to be similar.”
Amtrak has replaced most of the Acela service from New York to Washington with its older Metroliner trains, but has been forced to sharply cut back on its NewYork-to-Boston runs.
Black said some of the drop in ridership may be due to regular Acela riders choosing not to ride the substitute Metroliners or other, slower Amtrak trains. Amtrak also gave up some riders when it turned over several Trenton-to-New York rush-hour trains to NJ Transit, in order to free up its own cars to fill in gaps left by the loss of the Acela.
Douglas J. Brown, president of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers, said the biggest problems have been for passengers traveling to New England.
“New York to Boston is taking the hit. Amtrak has sacrificed its competitive advantage and had to retreat to where it was in the 1990s,” Brown said.
He said the reaction of Acela riders to the service suspension “runs the gamut,” with some upset, some philosophical and making the best of the situation, and others turning to the airlines and the highways.
Amy Kudwa, a spokesman for US Airways, which operates shuttle service from LaGuardia to Washington, said the carrier has “seen an increase in passengers on a steady basis since the Acela went out of service in April.”
But Delta Airlines, which also operates a NewYork-to-Washington shuttle from LaGuardia, said the airline has not seen any noticeable change in traffic. Continental Airlines said it could not provide specific information on its Newark-to-Washington flights, but generally has seen an increase in domestic air travel.
Earlier this month, William Crosbie, senior vice president for operations at Amtrak, told a congressional committee that the cracks in the brake disk rotors were caused by vibrations when the brakes were applied. He said engineers have designed and are testing a new type of rotor that is less vulnerable to vibration and cracking.
If the testing is successful, Amtrak officials said, the new brake rotors will have to be manufactured and installed, and a more frequent inspection system instituted to insure reliability and safety.