Amtrak’s CEO, David L. Gunn, is the silver lining in an otherwise bleak period for the national railroad. His decision last week to suspend the popular Acela service in the Northeast Corridor after cracks were found in locomotive shock absorber assemblies could not have been easy, but he was right to put safety ahead of the daily $1 million loss caused by suspending the Acela, according to an editorial in the Boston Globe.
The suspension of the high-speed train is just the latest setback for Amtrak this year. It follows two serious derailments and the failure in July of an Amtrak crew on an MBTA commuter train to stop promptly and get emergency medical assistance when a passenger collapsed. All of this is happening when Amtrak should be entering a golden period as an alternative to an air travel system beset by passenger fears and security delays related to Sept. 11.
Gunn – who is given credit for helping improve New York City’s subway system in the 1980s – was also right in June to threaten to suspend not just Amtrak’s own service but also the commuter lines it operates when Congress balked at granting Amtrak a $205 million bailout. If there is anyone in railroading with the credibility to persuade Congress and the nation of the massive investment passenger trains need to succeed, Gunn is that person.
It won’t be easy. Members of Congress and the Bush administration alike still indulge in fantasies about making Amtrak profitable or selling it off to private operators who could do so. Even the most successful part of Amtrak, the Northeast Corridor system, covers its operating costs but can’t invest properly in track, trains, rights of way, and equipment.
Mainly because of track and equipment problems, the 150-m.p.h. Acela attains that speed only for short stretches of the Boston-to-Washington route. Even before inspectors detected the cracks in Acela locomotives, other equipment problems caused an embarrassingly poor on-time record for the Acela.
In spite of this – and Acela’s premium ticket prices – the high-speed trains have appealed to business and leisure travelers who appreciate downtown service without the long taxi rides and security delays of flying. The goal now must be to repair the Acela trains and restore service as quickly as possible. Amtrak should look beyond Acela’s manufacturer, a Canadian-French combine, for future high-speed trains with fewer kinks to work out.
For the long term, Gunn, who was operations director for the MBTA before he went to New York, should lead a campaign to get Amtrak a dedicated revenue stream – either a slice of the federal gasoline tax or a surcharge on air tickets – for infrastructure work. Acela’s brief months of success have given the country a glimpse of high-speed rail’s potential. Full realization of it cannot be done on the cheap.