Rail retailing and training |
|
|
Friday, January 10, 2003
Cow crash chaos Jan 9 2003 By Staff Reporter, Birmingham Post Passengers on a high-speed, inter-city train in the Midlands had a lucky escape after it hit a cow on the tracks. The 15.45 service from Euston in London to Wolverhampton had to be towed back to Rugby after being severely damaged in the incident in Brandon, south of Coventry. The line between London and Birmingham was blocked by the broken Virgin West Coast train, causing delays to following services. A Virgin spokesman said: “There was a collision with a cow on the line and it damaged the locomotive quite severely. “The train has now been recovered and services are returning to normal.” He added that the cow had been killed in the accident. No passengers were injured although the driver, who slammed on the brakes at while travelling at over 100mph is said to be suffering from shock. The spokesman said: “Network Rail has been upgrading the fencing on the West Coast Main Line but have been prioritising in urban areas where people might try to get on the line. “It remains to be seen how this cow got on the the line but my guess is it must be a recent breech in the fence or we would have seen more than one by now. “It is a matter for the Transport Police but it is possible that someone cut the fence although that is purely speculation at this point.” The passengers on the broken train were transferred to another service on arrival in Rugby. The Virgin spokesman said there had been “extensive disruption” and diversions on services out of Euston due to the incident, which happened around 5pm. The line was eventually cleared at around 8pm. Trains between London and Wolverhampton were diverted via Stafford, adding an hour to their journey and two services - the 17.45 and the 18.45 London to Coventry trains - were cancelled. Sunday, November 17, 2002
Rail to have own investigation branch By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent A SPECIALIST rail crash investigation body will be set up to ensure swift action to improve safety after collisions. People injured or bereaved by accidents will get regular briefings on the progress of the crash investigation. The Railway Accident Investigation Branch, which will be created by a Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech, was recommended by Lord Cullen in his report following the 1999 Paddington rail disaster. Setting up the body would put rail on a par with aviation, which has its Air Accidents Investigation Branch, and shipping, which has its Marine Accident Investigation Branch. At present, rail accidents are investigated by the Health and Safety Executive, which, in effect, investigates itself because it is the industry’s safety regulator. The HSE was criticised at the Paddington inquiry for failing to take tougher action against obscured signals. The new body’s sole purpose will be to investigate accidents on the railways. Investigators will have wide-ranging powers to gather evidence, with unfettered access to crash scenes. It will be an offence not to cooperate with their investigations. The rail industry will also have a duty to preserve evidence. However, the Queen’s Speech did not include any reform of the corporate manslaughter laws. Victims of rail crashes had been keen to see measures to make company directors personally responsible. The Government has repeatedly promised to introduce such measures but there is little chance of any change in the law before the next election. Wednesday, October 23, 2002
German rail engineers on trial for manslaughter over crash German rail engineers on trial for manslaughter over crash Andreas Moeser In Celle THREE railway engineers went on trial for manslaughter yesterday, four years after a train crash that killed 101 people. In June 1998, in Germany’s worst post-war rail disaster, a high-speed Inter-City Express (ICE) jumped the rails near Eschede at a speed of 120mph, sending the train ploughing into a road bridge, which collapsed and crushed several carriages. The men on trial are Volker Fischer, 56, and Joachim Thilo von Madeyski, 67, from Germany’s rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, and Franz Murawa, 55, from the steel and engineering group, ThyssenKrupp. They face 101 counts of manslaughter and complicity in the injury of another 105 people. They deny the charges. German rail engineers on trial for manslaughter over crash Andreas Moeser In Celle THREE railway engineers went on trial for manslaughter yesterday, four years after a train crash that killed 101 people. In June 1998, in Germany’s worst post-war rail disaster, a high-speed Inter-City Express (ICE) jumped the rails near Eschede at a speed of 120mph, sending the train ploughing into a road bridge, which collapsed and crushed several carriages. The men on trial are Volker Fischer, 56, and Joachim Thilo von Madeyski, 67, from Germany’s rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, and Franz Murawa, 55, from the steel and engineering group, ThyssenKrupp. They face 101 counts of manslaughter and complicity in the injury of another 105 people. They deny the charges. The American lawyer Ed Fagan, famed for his efforts to get compensation from foreign investors for victims of South African apartheid, said that he would bring charges against Deutsche Bahn and ThyssenKrupp in New York for a client involved in the accident. There was silence in the courtroom in Celle, the nearest main town to Eschede, as the list of dead and injured was read out. Several dozen survivors among the 105 injured in the crash sat alongside relatives of the victims, many with their heads bowed. The public prosecutor’s office said that the accused were responsible for the accident because of their carelessness in introducing a new type of wheel. The three engineers, who were involved in the manufacture and licensing of the wheel, which is believed to have caused the train to jump the rails, listened to the charges, but declined to comment. A broken ring from inside the wheel was displayed in the courtroom alongside models of the stretch of track in Eschede. "Without indispensable evidence of its resistance to fatigue, the new type of wheel should not have been allowed to have been fitted to the ICE, or at least only with a sufficient safety margin," the prosecutor, Hans Probst, said. The possibility of the wheel’s ring tearing open should have become evident before it was brought into service in the spring of 1992. A defence lawyer, Walther Graf, said that the charges were based on incorrect expert opinions. He said that evidence from other experts would show that the wheel’s ring was suitable for use at high speeds. Heinrich Loewen, who lost his wife and daughter in the crash and is a spokesman for relatives, said the trial was about making sure financial concerns were never again put ahead of safety. Friday, October 11, 2002
washingtonpost.com D.C. Assesses Self-Propelled Train Inexpensive Locomotive-Free Rail Car Runs on Existing Track By Lindsey Layton Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 6, 2002; Page C12 The train idling on Track 11 at Union Station last week stood out among the Amtrak Metroliners, not because of its gleaming maroon-and-gold body or glass dome windows. What set it apart was what it lacked: a locomotive. The $2.9 million train is a new type of transit vehicle, a cross between a bus and a commuter rail car, and a top District official says it holds great promise for improving transportation in the city. "We're looking for simple, inexpensive solutions like this one, that we can use to jump-start new service," said Dan Tangherlini, the District's acting director of transportation, who inspected the train as part of a four-day "Railvolution" conference that began Thursday and drew hundreds of transit officials and planners to Washington. The train, manufactured by Colorado Railcar Manufacturing LLC, is self-propelled, that is, it runs without a locomotive because its engines are built into the body of rail cars. Inside, the train has the appearance of a luxurious Metro car -- the operator sits in the cab, and the rest of the vehicle is filled with seats on either side of an aisle. The system, known as diesel multiple units, is the first of its kind to be built in the United States and approved by the Federal Railroad Administration. The new rail car is less expensive than traditional commuter rail, which consists of a locomotive that costs an average of $4 million and rail cars that cost about $1 million each. The diesel units can run on existing track, unlike a light rail system, which requires construction of electrified track. And it can run on the same track used by freight railroads, a flexibility that is becoming increasingly important as commuter railroads seek to use freight track. In the District, Tangherlini said the self-propelled train would be a perfect way to launch the "Anacostia Starter Line," a 7.2-mile transit line that would begin in the District's poorest neighborhoods in Southeast, cross the Anacostia River and connect with the burgeoning jobs and residences along the Southwest waterfront. District officials envision the Starter Line using light rail, the modern equivalent of streetcars. Until the $310 million Anacostia light rail system is built, the District could run self-propelled trains as an interim step, operating them on an existing freight railroad between the Minnesota Avenue and Anacostia Metro stations, Tangherlini said. "This would jump-start the Starter Line by tapping into the existing infrastructure," he said. Manufacturers can provide the District with the diesel units in 18 months -- a fast turnaround, Tangherlini said. Each rail car has 90 seats and can carry a maximum load of 254, including standing passengers. Diesel multiple units can be found in Europe but aren't operating commercially in the United States because they had not passed federal safety tests until recently. Colorado Railcar is the first manufacturer to produce a unit that meets federal standards. Thomas Janaky, vice president for sales at Colorado Railcar, said the company is targeting emerging commuter rail systems that share track with freight trains. He said the diesel-fueled trains are significantly cheaper to operate than a standard locomotive and passenger cars because they burn less fuel. Each train has two 600-horsepower engines, compared with the 4,000-horsepower engine of a typical locomotive. Commuter rail systems in California, Oregon and North Carolina have indicated they plan to purchase the diesel units. © 2002 The Washington Post Company washingtonpost.com D.C. Assesses Self-Propelled Train Inexpensive Locomotive-Free Rail Car Runs on Existing Track By Lindsey Layton Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 6, 2002; Page C12 The train idling on Track 11 at Union Station last week stood out among the Amtrak Metroliners, not because of its gleaming maroon-and-gold body or glass dome windows. What set it apart was what it lacked: a locomotive. The $2.9 million train is a new type of transit vehicle, a cross between a bus and a commuter rail car, and a top District official says it holds great promise for improving transportation in the city. "We're looking for simple, inexpensive solutions like this one, that we can use to jump-start new service," said Dan Tangherlini, the District's acting director of transportation, who inspected the train as part of a four-day "Railvolution" conference that began Thursday and drew hundreds of transit officials and planners to Washington. The train, manufactured by Colorado Railcar Manufacturing LLC, is self-propelled, that is, it runs without a locomotive because its engines are built into the body of rail cars. Inside, the train has the appearance of a luxurious Metro car -- the operator sits in the cab, and the rest of the vehicle is filled with seats on either side of an aisle. The system, known as diesel multiple units, is the first of its kind to be built in the United States and approved by the Federal Railroad Administration. The new rail car is less expensive than traditional commuter rail, which consists of a locomotive that costs an average of $4 million and rail cars that cost about $1 million each. The diesel units can run on existing track, unlike a light rail system, which requires construction of electrified track. And it can run on the same track used by freight railroads, a flexibility that is becoming increasingly important as commuter railroads seek to use freight track. In the District, Tangherlini said the self-propelled train would be a perfect way to launch the "Anacostia Starter Line," a 7.2-mile transit line that would begin in the District's poorest neighborhoods in Southeast, cross the Anacostia River and connect with the burgeoning jobs and residences along the Southwest waterfront. District officials envision the Starter Line using light rail, the modern equivalent of streetcars. Until the $310 million Anacostia light rail system is built, the District could run self-propelled trains as an interim step, operating them on an existing freight railroad between the Minnesota Avenue and Anacostia Metro stations, Tangherlini said. "This would jump-start the Starter Line by tapping into the existing infrastructure," he said. Manufacturers can provide the District with the diesel units in 18 months -- a fast turnaround, Tangherlini said. Each rail car has 90 seats and can carry a maximum load of 254, including standing passengers. Diesel multiple units can be found in Europe but aren't operating commercially in the United States because they had not passed federal safety tests until recently. Colorado Railcar is the first manufacturer to produce a unit that meets federal standards. Thomas Janaky, vice president for sales at Colorado Railcar, said the company is targeting emerging commuter rail systems that share track with freight trains. He said the diesel-fueled trains are significantly cheaper to operate than a standard locomotive and passenger cars because they burn less fuel. Each train has two 600-horsepower engines, compared with the 4,000-horsepower engine of a typical locomotive. Commuter rail systems in California, Oregon and North Carolina have indicated they plan to purchase the diesel units. © 2002 The Washington Post Company Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Nationalised rail network a step closer By Ben Webster THE Strategic Rail Authority took another step yesterday towards renationalising the railways by stripping train companies of the responsibility for leading the modernisation of the rail network. The SRA abandoned plans to award a 20-year franchise to run trains over busy commuter lines in southeast England. GoVia, the company which replaced Connex on the South Central franchise last year, is instead being offered a seven-year deal which could be terminated after five years. GoVia had been planning to secure £1.5billion of investment in the franchise to relieve overcrowding and make journeys faster and more reliable. But yesterday, almost exactly a year after the SRA said it favoured the GoVia plan, the authority said that it did not represent value for money for the taxpayer. GoVia will be relegated simply to operating a short contract. The SRA will now be masterminding the investment, including major track upgrades on the main line to Brighton and the Arun Valley line in Sussex. Two projects planned by GoVia, the electrification of the Ashford-to-Hastings line and the Uckfield line in Sussex, will not be going ahead. The SRA said the £150million cost could not be justified and the lines will be served instead by new diesel trains. Richard Bowker, the SRA chairman, said: “Instead of being a train operator-led infrastructure scheme, it will be an SRA-led infrastructure scheme.” Mr Bowker admitted that the practice since privatisation of making train operators take the risk on expanding the network was being reconsidered. “In this instance we believe the train operator taking the risk was actually very expensive. They are not necessarily the best people to take the risk.” Under the SRA’s new policy, it will specify exactly what it wants in each franchise area and will then organise the fundraising. The work will still be carried out by private- sector companies but the reality is that the taxpayer will shoulder much more of the risk. Mr Bowker said that train operators should concentrate on improving services rather than playing a major part in modernising the network. We want train operators to deliver the basic services. I still find it incredibly frustrating to travel on trains with dirty toilets, where they can’t keep the buffet stocked and they don’t make proper announcements. The public sector is pumping a very substantial amount of money into this network and it’s absolutely right that the taxpayer asks ‘what am I getting for that money?’ It is right that the role of specifying the work should be in the public sector, but the delivery will be by the private sector.” Other train operators, including Stagecoach, also now face losing the long franchises that they are currently negotiating. Mr Bowker refused to confirm that Stagecoach would still be awarded a 20-year franchise for South West Trains. “We are looking at the policy on franchises and issues around what they are best at delivering,” he said. The SRA’s decision to take control of upgrades comes as the Government prepares to replace Railtrack with Network Rail, a non-profit public-interest company. In little more than a year the major private rail companies, Railtrack and the train operators, have either been abolished or seen their role vastly reduced. Wendy Toms, chairman of the Rail Passengers’ Committee for Southern England, said: “Perhaps a positive outcome of having the SRA take the lead in upgrades to the infrastructure will be that the silly figures now being quoted for the cost of such work will become more realistic. We wonder whether train companies, Railtrack and engineering contractors have in the past believed that the taxpayer would pick up the bill, no matter how huge that bill was.” Monday, August 19, 2002
Fresh strike by train drivers looms Aug 19 2002 A fresh strike by train drivers at a leading regional rail company is set to go ahead after an attempt to resolve a pay dispute ended in failure. The drivers' union Aslef claims First North Western did not turn up for scheduled talks at the Manchester offices of the conciliation service Acas. The union's assistant general secretary Mick Blackburn travelled to Manchester from London to attend the talks. © Copyright Ananova Ltd 2002, all rights reserved. NATIONAL NEWS: Rail upgrade dropped By Juliette Jowit, Transport Correspondent FT.com site; Aug 17, 2002 Plans to upgrade one of the main intercity routes from London to the Midlands have been dropped because Railtrack said it would cost ý60m to take one minute off journey times. National Express, which runs the Midland Mainline franchise, said Railtrack's estimate doubled from ý60m to ý120m - and the work would have shaved only three to four minutes off journeys from London to Sheffield, instead of the promised 10 minutes. The government's Strategic Rail Authority, which has approved National Express's plan to use the money for other improvements, said spending ý60m would only have shaved one minute off the journey. The claims come as the SRA and other rail industry leaders are increasingly concerned about the rapid rise in the cost of projects. Senior figures have warned that many expected improvements will not be possible within the current budget because fewer projects are using up the available money and skills. Railtrack yesterday confirmed the cost was ý120m, but denied that was an increase because it never committed itself to the original figure. That was only meant to be a guideline and the project had changed, said an official. "We said we weren't going to commit to anything until we had a full feasibility study," he said. National Express said it believed the infrastructure work - which was part of a two-year franchise extension announced last year - was not worth doing at the higher cost. The company has since said it will spend the money on other passenger benefits, such as customer information systems. "What we found, and others have found, is their estimate doesn't follow on," said a company official. The SRA, which agreed the franchise extension, also denied Railtrack's claim and the implication that it had made promises based on poor quality preparation. "We can only go with what we have got [from Railtrack]," said an official. "Obviously an aspect of what Midland Mainline committed to was to do further feasibility work." He added: "It was one of the commitments of the franchise extension that if they didn't deliver it, we had an option of withdrawing the franchise extension. But what we have chosen to do instead is have them spend that ý60m on something else that will bring benefits to the route." The SRA said spending more money on preparation work for major projects was one of several plans to cut costs in the industry. Other proposals include spending more money on training. Saturday, August 10, 2002
Resilient Amtrak? On October 30, 1970, the Rail Passenger Service Act was signed by President Nixon. The legislation authorized the National Railroad Passenger Corporation to manage the basic national rail network and operate trains under contracts with the railroads. Seven months later, Amtrak was formed because Congress wanted to revive the use of passenger rail services and to relieve private freight railroads that were headed toward bankruptcy from the burden of passenger service. For years, Amtrak would defer maintenance on equipment until it's cars and locomotives had deteriorated, touchinf off even more breakdowns and late trains. Then Amtrak would buy new equipment, often through long-term loans and occasionally with congressional appropriations. Today, Amtrak equipment is in reasonably good shape, compared with past years, but the old cycles again have surfaced. As losses and debts grew, Amtrak cut back on maintenance and budgeted nothing to fix wreck-damaged cars. More than 50 badly needed cars, damaged in wrecks, are now sitting in Indianapolis and are slowly being returned to service. The Debate Over Cutting Routes There have always been two Amtraks -- the Northeast Corridor and the long-distance trains. No one has disputed that the Boston-Washington corridor is needed; Amtrak carries more New York-Washington passengers than both airline shuttles combined. Long-distance trains are another matter, however. Proponents describe long-distance trains as necessary transportation for rural America. Opponents call them money pits, land cruises or rolling national parks. Year after year, Amtrak has threaten to eliminate long-distance routes that happened to go through states served by key House and Senate committee chairmen unless the railroad got more money. Congress complied -- and kept adding more trains. A famous target -- a train from Washington to Parkersburg, W.Va., the home town of then-House Commerce Committee Chairman Harley O. Staggers (D). The train gained the irreverent nickname, "Harley's Hornet." Chiltern on track to ease disruption Aug 8 2002 By Campbell Docherty, Birmingham Post A Midland train operator is set to take advantage of its rivals' misfortune as vital engineering work begins on the West Coast Main Line. Chiltern Railways will provide the only direct weekend Birmingham to London services until the end of the year, while Virgin Trains and Silverlink will be forced to transfer passengers on to buses for part of their route to the capital. Chiltern has announced it will double its trains and provide extra coaches to meet an expected increase in passenger demand for trains from Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone, rather than use the disrupted New Street to London Euston services. Last month, Railtrack announced the closure of sections of track on the approach to Euston every weekend from this Saturday until December 8. All the affected parties admitted the closure of the WCML will have a huge effect on passengers normally reliant on the route. A spokesman for Chiltern said it had worked closely with Virgin and Silverlink to offer an alternative service and keep passenger inconvenience to a minimum. The spokesman said seven new carriages would be drafted into service and extra staff would be available at both Birmingham New Street and Snow Hill, as well as the two London stations, to assist passengers. He added Chiltern information leaflets, with maps detailing recommended alternative routes and stations, would be available from New Street and other stations operated by Virgin and Silverlink. Steve Murphy, general manager of Chiltern Railways, said he wanted to get the message across to passengers affected by the WCML upgrade that there is an alternative. "This is a fantastic example of the national rail industry working together to ensure that passengers are as well looked after as possible during engineering works," he said. "Many of the stations on Chiltern Railways' route from Birmingham Snow Hill or Aylesbury to London Marylebone are a short distance from stations normally used by Virgin or Silver-link passengers so they provide a good alternative. "Our major track and signal upgrade was designed to be completed before the WCML closure, ensuring that we are not only able to improve the service we already provide for our existing passengers, but also offer a regular and reliable service for those affected by the WCML disruption." Electric rail plan axed after U-turn over costs By Paul Marston, Transport Correspondent (Filed: 05/08/2002) A railway upgrade identified as a national "major project" by the Government's Strategic Rail Authority seven months ago has been abandoned because it is thought too expensive. Electrification of two "missing link" sections of the South Central network in Kent and East Sussex was highlighted in the authority's strategic plan as one of only eight large-scale schemes scheduled for completion by 2006. Its sudden withdrawal has raised fears that a general rise in infrastructure costs will lead to the loss of further projects from the 10-year plan. The South Central plan would have permitted a huge rise in through-trains between Uckfield and London, currently restricted to two a day, and opened the possibility of a critical diversionary route between London and Brighton when the main line was disrupted. Originally mooted by British Rail in the 1980s, the project would have allowed direct services between Ashford International, Brighton and other towns on the South Coast for the first time. The Ashford-Hastings and Uckfield-Hurst Green lines are the only parts of the South Central region still relying on diesel power. Because of the importance of removing this obstacle to faster, direct services, the SRA had insisted on a commitment to electrification by Govia, the new South Central operator, before it was chosen to replace Connex last year. But the SRA has told passenger groups that the £154 million scheme "would not be possible to justify" in terms of value for money. The decision, endorsed by ministers, is a second blow to hopes for transport improvements along the South Coast after the rejection last year of the A259 Hastings bypass by Stephen Byers, former Transport Secretary. Wendy Toms, chairman of the Rail Passengers' Committee for Southern England, said local people were bitterly disappointed by the SRA's sudden U-turn. "It is very hard to understand how something listed as a priority in the national strategic plan in January is now seen as poor value for money." The SRA said a recent reassessment of the scheme had suggested that the value of the passenger benefits would be nine times smaller than the expenditure required. Also the cost of remedying power supply problems across the whole region had to be taken into account. Thursday, August 08, 2002
The derailment of the Amtrak train in Kensington [front page, July 30] was apparently caused by buckled tracks due to the excessively hot day. It is known that steel has a high coefficient of expansion. For example, every 100 feet of track rails expands 0.39 inches when the temperature of the metal rises to 120 degrees. If an allowance for this expansion is not made, the steel will continue to buckle, and derailments will be a threat. In my observation of the segments of track being replaced at the accident site, each length of track was bolted tightly to the next without any allowance for expansion. The solution to this hazardous situation should be obvious to the board that is being convened to determine the cause of this accident. In my practice as a consulting engineer for steam piping, this is a normal procedure in the design of steel pipe for elevated operating steam temperatures. Monday, July 15, 2002
DOT Proposes Another Loan to Amtrak By John Crawley Reuters Saturday, July 13, 2002; Page E01 The Bush administration has proposed lending Amtrak up to $170 million to keep the national passenger railroad running through September, Transportation Department officials said yesterday. The loan would be the second stage of a bailout plan approved two weeks ago by the White House. The bailout averted a threatened shutdown this month of all Amtrak trains and several heavily traveled commuter services in the Northeast and California. The first stage of that agreement was a $100 million loan that Amtrak received from the government a week ago to keep all its service intact into August. The second stage, as proposed in a letter Thursday from Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to congressional leaders, would involve another direct federal loan of up to $170 million. House and Senate negotiators had included a $205 million appropriation for Amtrak -- the amount of money it said it needed to keep trains running through Sept. 30 -- in an emergency spending bill for homeland security and other government programs. But that bill is stalled in Congress by a veto threat from the administration, and the White House Office of Management and Budget yesterday rejected the notion of a direct grant. "A direct loan is really the way to go here," Transportation Department spokesman Len Alcivar said. "A direct loan is the more fiscally responsible of all options. An app DOT Proposes Another Loan to Amtrak By John Crawley Reuters Saturday, July 13, 2002; Page E01 The Bush administration has proposed lending Amtrak up to $170 million to keep the national passenger railroad running through September, Transportation Department officials said yesterday. The loan would be the second stage of a bailout plan approved two weeks ago by the White House. The bailout averted a threatened shutdown this month of all Amtrak trains and several heavily traveled commuter services in the Northeast and California. The first stage of that agreement was a $100 million loan that Amtrak received from the government a week ago to keep all its service intact into August. The second stage, as proposed in a letter Thursday from Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to congressional leaders, would involve another direct federal loan of up to $170 million. House and Senate negotiators had included a $205 million appropriation for Amtrak -- the amount of money it said it needed to keep trains running through Sept. 30 -- in an emergency spending bill for homeland security and other government programs. But that bill is stalled in Congress by a veto threat from the administration, and the White House Office of Management and Budget yesterday rejected the notion of a direct grant. "A direct loan is really the way to go here," Transportation Department spokesman Len Alcivar said. "A direct loan is the more fiscally responsible of all options. An appropriation would be a continuation of the broken pattern of the last 30 years." Amtrak's banks have denied it access to its credit line because of its horrendous finances and an incomplete audit report for 2001. Amtrak has never made money in its 31-year history and lost $1.2 billion last year. The administration is seeking congressional approval of its most recent loan plan. But some lawmakers believe it would be a mistake to extend new credit to Amtrak because that would add to its debt, which is now almost $4 billion. "Congress should provide the funding needed to maintain passenger rail service," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the transportation subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "And that is the deal that the House and Senate had agreed to, until the White House stepped in to scuttle the deal." The proposed loan would have to be paid back no later than Jan. 1, and Amtrak would have to adhere to conditions that require the railroad to cut costs and get better control of its finances. The loan agreement also would require management reforms and bookkeeping changes. The administration had pledged not to push for larger-scale reforms it wants, such as contracting out of some routes and jobs, as part of the short-term financing. The Wrong Track for Amtrak Thursday, July 4, 2002; Page A22 Robert J. Samuelson calls for the dismantling of Amtrak [op-ed, June 26], citing mismanagement, inefficiencies and low ridership as reasons to, at the least, end its subsidies. On the same day, The Post's Business section carried a "demand" by United Airlines for a $1.8 billion loan guarantee and another article that discussed the recovery of America West Airlines through a $380 million loan guarantee by the federal government. Have people forgotten that the airlines bellied up to the bar for huge subsidies after Sept. 11? And what have the airlines exactly done with that money? • Stop or curtail meal services. • Overbook flights. • Continue to lose luggage. • Cancel or delay flights for no discernible reason. • Generally inconvenience passengers under the guise of increased "security." Granted, Amtrak is government-run and, therefore, not likely to excel. But is its management worse than that of the privately run airlines? Does Amtrak need reform? Undoubtedly. But we need a rail system because many people no longer fly. Then again, "pigs will fly" before Congress quits doling out subsidies based on contributions and considers the greater good of the American people. LAURA MAGNER Sylvia de Leon sets a dangerous precedent for American businesses by suggesting that the excise tax on diesel fuel paid by freight railroads be turned over to Amtrak ["No Way to Run a Railroad," op-ed, June 24]. Trucking companies are not required to subsidize bus lines; freight railroads should not be required to subsidize passenger railroads. North America's privately owned freight railroads pay the entire cost of maintaining and improving our nation's rail infrastructure and rights of way. They also pay property taxes. No other mode of transportation bears this burden. It makes sense to eliminate the diesel fuel tax so that freight railroads can compete on a more level playing field and increase investment in the infrastructure and equipment that has made our nation's freight rail system the best in the world. Amtrak was created more than 30 years ago because unprofitable rail passenger service was placing a devastating burden on freight railroads. I hope we don't have to relearn that history lesson. Privately owned and operated freight rail carriers cannot and should not be expected to subsidize passenger rail. EDWARD R. HAMBERGER President and CEO Association of American Railroads Washington French reassure UK workers on the futureBY ANGELA JAMESON TENS of thousands of UK employees of Vivendi Universal were yesterday offered reassurance over their future with the French media and utilities company. Vivendi Environnement, the utilities business that is 44 per cent owned by Vivendi Universal, last night said that it was business as usual for its 18,000 workers, who work mainly in areas of transport, water and waste management. These assurances failed to dampen speculation among rival transport and utilities companies that Vivendi Environnement might be split up, triggering an auction of the company’s UK assets. However, analysts said that the crisis in Vivendi Environnement’s parent company, which last night ushered in a new chief executive, was likely to strengthen the hand of Henri Proglio, chief executive of Vivendi Environnement. Vivendi Universal last month agreed to reduce its controlling stake in Vivendi Environnement to 40 per cent, reducing the influence of the Vivendi Universal board on MProglio’s team. Robert Miller-Bakewell, water analyst for Merrill Lynch, said: “In April, Messier tried to oust Proglio, but he saw him off. With Messier gone, Henri Proglio is in a much stronger position. I expect Vivendi Universal will leave Vivendi Environnement alone.” Analysts also played down speculation that another utility might end up buying Vivendi Universal’s share of the Environnement company. Competition issues would rule out either RWE or E.ON, the large German utilities. In the transport sector, UK groups such as Stagecoach and National Express would be keen to acquire parts of Connex’s bus and rail operations. Both companies compete at home and abroad with Connex. However, the continuing upheaval in the UK’s rail industry means it is unclear whether that could happen. “It’s a question we ask, but the assumption is that the French Government will want to keep the whole business,” said one transport industry insider. Vivendi Environnement is the holding company for several businesses that have become familiar to the British public in the past ten years as the French group has strengthened its grip on many aspects of public services. It has bought three small water companies, culminating in a deal to be completed in October to buy Southern Water. Connex runs trains out of Victoria, Waterloo and Charing Cross stations in London. Onyx, the waste management business, has 40 waste management contracts with local authorities across Britain.British assets of Vivendi Universal Connex: Train operator in Kent, South London and parts of East Sussex 6,000 employees Onyx:UK-wide waste management business, including contracts with 40 local authorities 7,000 employees Vivendi Water Services: includes Tendring Hundred, Folkestone & Dover and Three Valleys3,500 employees Southern Water:due to be acquired from Royal Bank of Scotland in October 2,100 employees ChambersHarrap: the Edinburgh-based dictionary publisher 50 employees Vizzavi: mobile internet portal. A joint venture with Vodafone 317 employees Tuesday, July 02, 2002
Washingtonpost On Track to . . . Where? Amtrak got bailed out -- again -- after harried negotiations sparked by new president David Gunn's threat to shut down the long-ailing national passenger railroad (and commuter lines that use its tracks or crews) this week if it didn't get $205 million in short-term financial help. But Amtrak's long-term fate is still idling at the station. Next up: a political scrap over administration proposals to end federal operating subsidies and open up parts of the system to competition Train firms neglectful, says Darling By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent ALISTAIR DARLING accused train companies yesterday of neglecting their passengers and failing to fulfil their commitments to improve services. The Transport Secretary, in his first speech about the railways, told the companies that the Government would not write any blank cheques and he wanted to see better performance with existing resources. “Train operating companies account for over half the network’s delays,” Mr Darling told the Railway Forum. The 25 passenger companies should run services that suited the travelling public rather than attempting to “shoehorn customers into operational convenience”, he said. “They need to bring in the flair and efficiency they promised. And they can point to some successes, new rolling stock for example, but there are still problems to be overcome.” A fifth of trains were still running late 18 months after the Hatfield train crash, according to punctuality figures published last month. Only 81 per cent of trains were on time in the first three months of this year compared with 90 per cent in the three months before the Hatfield crash in October 2000. Figures from the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) show that train companies have continued to push up fares above inflation despite the poor performance. Long-distance train operators like Virgin and GNER force passengers to book in advance for cheap tickets and penalise those who try to change their journey times. Mr Darling said operators should give customers proper choice by offering easy-to-book tickets that are easily changed. His attack on the train operators was interpreted by senior industry figures as an attempt to shift the focus away from Network Rail, the company set up by the Government to replace Railtrack. Brian Souter, chairman of Stagecoach, which operates South West Trains, said he had seen little sign of how Network Rail was going to improve on Railtrack’s performance. “Our main concern is how fundamental the change is to the industry,” he told the Transport Secretary. Mr Darling ruled out any further structural change, however, saying that a period of stability was needed. He rejected suggestions by his predecessor, Stephen Byers, that the Government might choose one area, possibly Scotland, in which to experiment with allowing a train company to run its own tracks. “The public want trains to run on time and I don’t think another examination of the structure would benefit that,” he said. He also rejected calls from rail unions for renationalisation, which he said would result in “three to four years of uncertainty during which nothing would happen”. Richard Bowker, chairman of the SRA, said the railways would be unable to expand unless Network Rail reduced the rising costs of operating and maintaining the railway. Railtrack’s original budget for the West Coast Main Line upgrade was £2 billion, but the latest estimate puts the cost at £13 billion. Mr Bowker blamed this mainly on Railtrack’s failure to manage its contractors. Mr Darling confirmed plans to establish a new independent rail accident investigation branch, as recommended by Lord Cullen’s inquiry into the Paddington train crash. He will give further details later this month in a consultation document. Sunday, June 30, 2002
Railway network overspending by £1.5bn By Juliette Jowit, Transport Correspondent Financial Times; Jun 29, 2002 The Strategic Rail Authority is to appeal to the rail industry to get a grip on spiralling costs as new figures show the network is overspending allocated funds by ý1.5bn a year. Network Rail, which is bidding to buy Railtrack out of administration, has found that the company is spending ý1.5bn a year more than allowed by the rail regulator in order to maintain the infrastructure. The figures follow mounting evidence about the rising cost of large projects and demands by train operators for more subsidy. The most high profile case is the upgrade of the west coast mainline from London to Scotland, which experts believe has risen in cost to ý13bn - or ý30m a mile. Industry and government concern has prompted Richard Bowker, chairman of the SRA, to warn that it could eat into much-needed investment funds. "The whole cost of running the railway is in danger of running ahead and I believe it has to be curbed," Mr Bowker told a meeting of transport leaders this week. "Over the next few months and years we have to address the rising cost base of the industry. If we don't do that we crowd out the investment we desperately need." Network Rail said it planned to spend 18 months assessing what the money was being spent on and completing a full register of Railtrack's assets. Using the information, the not-for-dividend company plans to apply to the rail regulator in 2004 for more income for the current period and future years. The government will make up any difference and has set aside ý8bn to cover it. Iain Coucher, Network Rail managing director, said: "At this stage we're unsure what this money is being spent on, whether value for money is being achieved, and whether it's improving the network." Mr Coucher refuted claims that Network Rail would not have proper incentives to cut costs because it was underwritten by government. Managers will be incentivised according to a basket of measures to provide "a safe, efficient and reliable network", he said. The National Audit Office said yesterday it would investigate the up-to-ý21bn of grants and guarantees provided by government through the SRA to help Network Rail buy Railtrack out of administration. The inquiry into the package of support, announced on Thursday, was a matter of course, said an NAO spokesman. The NAO confirmed it wanted Network Rail to be a subsidiary of the SRA, an independent government agency. However the Office of National Statistics has ruled that the company's debts will not be included in the public sector borrowing requirement - a key Treasury demand. Following the offer for Railtrack plc, Railtrack Group has said it hopes to return 245-255p per share to investors. Last night the shares closed 1?p down at 222?p. Journey of discovery sees rail network fail all points By Juliette Jowit Jun 28, 2002 York station at midday is busy with travellers waiting for late trains. The delays allow Professor Roderick Smith time to start totting up the first signs of the problems that lie ahead. The head of mechanical engineering at Imperial College can see from the platform at least eight temporary braces holding damaged rail tracks together; joints are worn; the track is thick with black grease used to reduce the wear on curves; and clip pads and clips left by maintenance workers are lying about on the tracks. The gravel-like ballast is clearly not "tamped" properly so that the rails and sleepers have a stable cushion to lie on, says Prof Smith. The 12:07 to Sheffield leaves more than 20 minutes late. It is an ignominious start to a trip past some of the most significant landmarks of railway history: from York, one-time centre of Britain's pre-eminence in rail design and home to the National Railway Museum with its model of Stephenson's original Rocket steam engine, via Sheffield where track that was revolutionary in its day was once forged, through Derby and on towards St Pancras, one of the capital's majestic stations. It is a journey that throws up shocking evidence of just how badly the national railway has deteriorated. Defenders of the rail industry point to strong passenger growth, increased services and thousands of new trains in use and in production since privatisation in the mid-1990s. But experts such as Prof Smith - an acknowledged authority on the British and Japanese rail systems - say that growth has highlighted the underlying weakness of the infrastructure, which undermines the whole railway. Fast, modern trains cannot disguise the inadequacy of the tracks on which they run. Sheffield once stood at the forefront of railway innovation. The city's mills produced the world's first steel rails to replace the original iron ones. But today any signs of the great railway age are long gone. As the train draws into the station there is a trail of stone slabs, car hubcaps, tyres, bottles, skateboard parts and exposed wires - all handy for the trespassers who account for over 27m incidents of vandalism a year, warns Prof Smith. In the station it is, if anything, worse. Litter is piled up and tracks are strewn with waste from the many trains that still use open lavatories. Ballast is piled up over sleepers and clips, meaning maintenance workers cannot see if anything is missing or cracked, says the professor. Patches of sleepers and ballast are frequently a pale coffee colour, and dried up like a river bed in drought. This is pumping, explains Prof Smith, where gaps under the ballast allow the sleeper to move up and down, throwing up mud and dust. "This is just incredible. That's as bad as I've seen it in a long time," he says. Every metre or two there are pock marks on top of the rail. Nuts lie loose beside the line - they are not necessarily needed, but as missing nuts were blamed for the fatal Potters Bar crash last month they catch the eye. These problems may not be a high safety priority in stations where trains are crawling - although they would be at higher speeds. But they reflect the wider state of the network and the industry, claims Prof Smith. "How can there be an engineer in charge of this?" he demands. "In the old times somebody would be going beserk. I wonder how drivers can react with professional pride when what they see from their cab is dereliction. What message is it giving to drivers? Nobody gives a damn about the system." At least the train south from Sheffield leaves on time. Just outside the station four tracks narrow to two, one of the many bottlenecks that cause frequent delays. These congestion spots and lack of electrification are big constraints on the ability of the network to recover from problems and grow, says the professor. A waitress serves tea as the train gathers speed. She carefully fills the cups only halfway as, again, the train sways and jolts. Even by British standards this line seems bad. "The ride quality has become much, much more patchy," says Prof Smith, who uses the service regularly to commute between London and his family home on the edge of the Peak District. "There are stretches where it's okay, but there are a lot where it's not." After Derby, home of British Rail's old research laboratory and training college, Professor Smith points out plants growing through the ballast, sometimes even between the rails. They look innocuous, but they create voids in the ballast, again weakening the support of the track. As the train nears London, more plants - often buddleia - are growing out of the walls of embankments and bridges. Again, these weaken the structures and can cause them to collapse, says Prof Smith. Fifty years ago experts called the railway "a poor bag of assets". Generations of underinvestment by government and then Railtrack made it worse, says Prof Smith. "If one phrase epitomises our problems it was sweating the assets," he says. "This is a culmination of railway managers given a defective set of tracks and told to work them into the ground under a notional efficiency system. "You can do it for a while, but like any other maintenance problems it all comes back to haunt you when the railway starts running out." These problems are more subtle than the dramatic images of cracked rails and broken points after recent accidents, but they cause regular failures that damage performance and inhibit capacity. Indirectly, there is also an impact on safety because "if trains are in the right place at the right time they can't collide", says Prof Smith. "We're running the system at the margin of crisis management." Wednesday, June 26, 2002
By Robert J. Samuelson Wednesday, June 26, 2002; Page A25 It is time to let Amtrak die. Actually, Congress should never have created Amtrak and, having done so, should have long ago killed it. The Amtrak problem is not mainly about transportation, because passenger trains move so few travelers. It's about politics, which is to say Washington's inability to control spending. Since its start in 1971, Amtrak has required $39 billion in federal subsidies (in "constant" 2000 dollars), says the General Accounting Office. Its annual cash needs are now running at $1 billion or more. Because Congress hasn't yet provided quite that much, it's running out of money. In the future, these amounts can only grow. Amtrak is a capital- and labor-intensive business that never could -- and never will -- be able to cover its costs. What's the justification for subsidizing it? The national government has two basic purposes: to solve national problems and to provide nationwide public services -- services that can't be supplied by the private market. Amtrak doesn't qualify on either ground. Its services aren't truly national. About two-thirds of its ridership is in the Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York and Washington. Nor does Amtrak represent an essential public service. If Amtrak didn't exist, most people would still get where they want to go. Amtrak provides only 0.3 percent of intercity transportation -- a proportion that has steadily declined. Cars, planes and buses supply the rest. Now, that's not 30 percent or 3 percent; it's three-tenths of 1 percent. Even if Amtrak's ridership tripled (which no one thinks will happen), its share would be less than 1 percent. In fiscal 2001, says the GAO, Amtrak carried an average of 64,000 intercity passengers a day. By contrast, airlines carried 1.8 million and buses 984,000. Amtrak operated in 45 states in 2001, but in 34 of those, it carried fewer than 1,000 passengers a day. Because Amtrak does so little, it can't contribute significantly to solving any conceivable national problem: alleviating congestion; reducing air pollution; saving energy. One 1995 study of trains between Los Angeles and San Diego estimated that they kept 2,240 cars off the road a day. Surely, no one noticed in a corridor where millions of cars move daily. The lesson of Amtrak is that Congress does not demand that federal programs serve true national needs. If it did, Amtrak -- and many other programs -- would disappear. Once a program exists, it becomes virtually immortal. To eliminate it would deprive the supervising congressional committees of power, and members of Congress rarely surrender power. Nor do they willingly invite bad publicity. If Amtrak shut down, its closing would be greeted on TV and in papers as a small national tragedy that was, somehow, a blow against sensible transportation and the environment. People have a romantic attachment to passenger trains. Amtrak is a subsidy for nostalgia. To disguise this, Amtrak's advocates construct artful arguments. It's said, for example, that because the government has subsidized highways and airways, passenger trains also deserve subsidies. But most airline and highway subsidies are covered by user fees, and the scale of the subsidies -- measured per passenger -- are much smaller. On Amtrak's long-distance trains, most passengers are subsidized at least $100 per trip. On some routes, the subsidy exceeds $300. The highways and airways don't get anything like that. Congress also periodically pretends that Amtrak can become self-supporting. In the original legislation, subsidies were supposed to be temporary. A few years ago, Congress again decreed that Amtrak become self-sufficient -- a goal so unrealistic that it's hard to see how anyone with a shred of intelligence or integrity could have endorsed it. Passenger trains made sense when Americans crowded into cities. But post-World War II suburbanization, interstate highways and jet travel (beginning in 1958) made trains economically unviable and socially irrelevant. By and large, people no longer moved from central city to central city but from one scattered suburban location to another. Trains couldn't compete with cars on cost and convenience. They couldn't compete with planes on time and cost. Because mounting losses were weakening private railroads, Congress created Amtrak to assume responsibility for deficit-ridden passenger trains. Congress dared not let passenger trains disappear. But neither could it allow railroads to slip progressively into bankruptcy, impairing their main economic function: moving freight. Railroads still carry about 40 percent of all freight. In some places -- mainly the Northeast Corridor and perhaps a few others -- passenger trains may make sense. According to the GAO, Amtrak's only route with an operating profit in 2001 was the New York-to-Washington Metroliner, which made $51 million. But that profit excludes the cost of buying trains and improving track. In an ideal world, Congress would set a termination date for Amtrak, say a year or 18 months from now. During that time, states and localities that wanted to continue passenger service (including many commuter trains) could make arrangements to assume Amtrak's trains and costs. Because the benefits are mainly local, subsidies should be local too. Given Amtrak's dreary history, the chances of anything so sensible happening seem slight. Probably Congress will muddle through the present "crisis," throwing more money at Amtrak and proving once again that no federal program -- no matter how unjustified -- is ever a candidate for the ax. Rail safety improves but assaults on staff soar Jun 26 2002 The rail industry achieved its best ever safety figures last year, it has been revealed. But the figures had to be seen against the backdrop of last month's Potters Bar crash, said the Railway Safety group, which released the statistics. The latest figures covered the period April 2001 to March 2002 and so did not include the seven people who died and the 71 others who were injured in the tragedy. Rail union switches backing for Labour MPs Jun 25 2002 Britain's biggest rail union has decided to sack a number of Labour MPs including Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. It is switching financial support to a new group of leading left wingers. The Rail Maritime and Transport Union voted to adopt a new group of Labour MPs including Jeremy Corbyn, Ann Cryer and Diane Abbott. Network Rail to get access to billions By Alistair Osborne, City Correspondent (Filed: 24/06/2002) Network Rail's bid to buy Railtrack plc is expected to be backed by three separate Government support packages, which are likely to be kept off the public books, it emerged yesterday. Alongside a £9 billion bridging loan backed by the taxpayer-funded Strategic Rail Authority, Network Rail is also expected to have access to billions of pounds of extra funding. This will be in the form of a long-term contingency fund and further mid-term resources, which one source said would ensure that Network Rail "is not punished for the mistakes of Railtrack". The contingency fund could only be used in the event of major problems on the railways under Network Rail's stewardship, such as a crisis similar to that in the industry after the Hatfield crash. For Network Rail to have access to this fund, the Government would probably demand management changes. The other mid-term funding will become available to help Network Rail deal with Railtrack's legacy projects, such as the West Coast main line upgrade where costs have soared from the initial £2 billion to as much as £13 billion. Information on the Government support packages is expected to be revealed by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling once Network Rail makes its formal £500m offer to take Railtrack plc out of administration. The deal could be announced as early as today, prompting a relisting of the shares in Railtrack Group, which are expected to start trading at a discount to the 240p-250p per share it hopes to return. While Network Rail and Railtrack Group were very close to signing last night, the relisting also depends on London & Continental Railways completing a £375m deal to buy Railtrack Group's option over the first phase of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Delays over this deal could postpone the announcement. Once announced, Mr Darling is expected to make a statement to Parliament and reveal details of the government support packages in a note probably lodged in the House of Commons library. The note is said to be "very complex". Government support is expected to be via the SRA but, like the £9 billion bridging loan, off the public accounts. The size of the mid-term support could be in the region of £10 billion. The CBI will today call for another £15 billion injection into the Government's 10-year transport plan, arguing that rail alone needs £12 billion more. Network Rail might also request more cash via an interim review with regulator Tom Winsor. The accounting for Network Rail has already sparked a political storm. Shadow chancellor Michael Howard has written to Gordon Brown asking: "Why should the £9 billion be regarded as a potential debt on an agency of the Government, but not on the Government itself? "People are rightly concerned with the declining performance of the railways since the Government decided to renationalise them. There is now a danger of Enron-style accounting being added to the charge sheet." National Statistics is yet to rule formally on the accounting for the £9 billion loan. Yesterday a spokesman for Mr Darling said: "It is a decision for the ONS [National Statistics] and they are independent of government." Virgin wins with West Coast deal Dominic O’Connell VIRGIN RAIL is to be given an extension to its controversial West Coast Main Line franchise in return for scrapping claims against Railtrack. The deal is likely to be finalised in September, and may also include a reduction in track- access payments by Virgin, as well as a scaling-back of the amount of ticket revenue it was to have paid to the government. The deal will resolve a row between Virgin and Railtrack over the troubled West Coast Main Line upgrade. Virgin has a 15-year franchise to run trains on the line. Virgin has invested in a £1.2 billion fleet of tilting trains that were to have run at 125mph from last month, and at 140mph from May 2005. They would have cut journey times from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow by at least half an hour. But Railtrack has been unable to deliver the necessary track improvements specified in the contract with Virgin — leaving it open to compensation claims. The cost of the upgrade has soared — from £2.1 billion when work began in earnest in 1998, to a final official estimate last year of £6.3 billion. Bechtel, the US construction manager famous for saving troubled construction projects, including the Channel tunnel, has concluded that a 140mph railway would cost £13 billion. “We thought it might be close to £10 billion, but this is unbelievable,” said one source. Bechtel was asked to study progress on the project by John Armitt, Railtrack’s chief executive. The main task was to determine whether a revised September 2003 timetable for 125mph running could be met. It is understood that Bechtel concluded that the deadline is challenging but can be met. “The figure for 140mph is really a red herring,” said one source close to the talks. “We are focused on how to achieve 125mph.” Bechtel is also understood to have concluded that the West Coast line was in a much worse state than thought when the railways were privatised in 1996. Directions: Book of the Week: Great railway journeys of Europe Anthony Sattin Great Railway Journeys of Europe edited by Tom Le Bas (Insight Guides £16.99) Unlike Britain, continental Europe is seeing a renaissance in train travel, thanks to the spread of the high-speed rail network, and Insight’s new guide to the best of Europe’s railway journeys celebrates this. The Orient Express is the first of 70 journeys described and lavishly illustrated. Most routes are confined to single countries; some, such as Spain’s Al Andalus and Switzerland’s Glacier Express, are obvious, but many are not, including the Middlesbrough to Whitby route, the train that runs through the Causses region of southern France, and the line that crosses the Corinth Canal into the Peloponnese. This latest Insight Guide will help you choose your route and sort out the practicalities along the way. To buy Great Railway Journeys for the reduced price of £13.59, excluding p&p, or any travel guides, call The Sunday Times Books Direct on 0870 165 8585 SWT it may lose new franchise by Dick Murray Transport Editor South West Trains, which serves some of the busiest commuter routes in the country, could lose its proposed 15-year franchise because of continuing poor services. Passengers have complained of late, overcrowded and cancelled services. The Transport Secretary said SWT is "not being operated as well as anybody would like. Its performance levels are not acceptable." He said if the Strategic Rail Authority cannot negotiate a franchise renewal that puts the interests of the public first, it will be prepared to seek a new franchise operator. His condemnation sent a shock wave through Stagecoach-owned SWT, which believed it had the franchise sewn up. SWT recently announced the completion of a £1 billion order for new trains. Sunday, June 23, 2002
Scottish News: Scotland is top of rail danger list Mark Macaskill SCOTLAND'S railways are the most dangerous in Britain with more acts of vandalism and sabotage than any other part of the country, official figures have revealed. Statistics released by Railtrack, the track owner, show that three out of the top five most hazardous stretches of track are north of the border. Scotland also has among the highest numbers of track trespassers. The company has warned that it is "only a matter of time" before there is a fatal disaster on Scotland's railways. The warning comes a month after the derailment of a train at Potters Bar, in Hertfordshire, which left seven people dead and 76 injured. Jarvis, the company responsible for track maintenance, claims the accident was a result of sabotage although investigators have found no evidence to support their claims. According to Railtrack, the most dangerous rail journey in Britain is between Whifflet, in Coatbridge, and Glasgow. Last year there were 63 separate acts of vandalism on the 12-mile stretch of track. The line at Kirkwood Station is identified as Britain's most dangerous with 38 individual attacks. They included an incident last year when 20 youths threw bricks at a train emerging from the station, smashing all the windows in the drivers' cab. Other stations under siege include Wishaw which recorded 34 attacks, Shieldmuir where there were 25 and Whifflet, which recorded 25. There were a further 30 reports of vandalism on routes into the high level at Glasgow Central. Items including shopping trolleys, wheelchairs, washing machines, mattresses and, in one case, a moped, have been dumped on the rails in the path of trains often travelling faster than 100mph. Last year, a driver was shot at by two youths brandishing an air rifle as the train passed through the Avonhill area in Cumbernauld and another was seriously injured when he was hit in the face by a stone in Holytowm, Lanarkshire. On several occasions, drivers who have stopped to remove obstacles have been ambushed by thugs and beaten up. The problem is so serious that, in some cases, drivers require counselling and time off to recover. Rail companies, including Scotrail and freight operator EWS, have also introduced toughened glass, used in aircraft cockpits, to reduce the risk of injury to drivers. "In the past, this problem has been dismissed as harmless youths up to mischief," said Janette Anderson, director of Railtrack Scotland. "However, these vandals are real criminals who endanger the lives of thousands of passengers. "We do have a serious problem in Scotland and it's only a matter of time before another person is killed. "We are currently in talks with the executive and it is crucial that we also engage the judiciary in Scotland. There needs to be much stiffer penalties." According to the police, route crime on Scotland's 2,500 miles of rail network has risen by 26% from 2,565 in 1999 to 3,238 in 2001 and costs the country about £26m in delays, repairs and counselling for traumatised staff. The rise in vandalism is despite ongoing efforts to battle the problem including undercover police officers travelling on the worst routes and the use of CCTV cameras.Last week, Railtrack ran a national campaign to raise awareness of vandalism on the network. ScotRail says the true scale of vandalism is much larger than official figures suggest.Last year, it recorded 645 stone-throwing incidents which damaged 451 train windows and injured 14 passengers and staff. It also noted 303 incidents of obstructions deliberately placed on the line. Yet official figures compiled by Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) — which only include incidents if a train is damaged — recorded 54. Superintendent Stuart Buchanan, area commander of the British Transport police in Scotland, said: "It's very serious,. The scale is much higher than government figures show." The official inquiry into the Potters Bar rail crash, in which seven people died and 76 were injured, has rejected evidence from maintenance contractors that sabotage was to blame. Investigators have established that at the time of the crash the track points were incorrectly installed. They believe this was caused by "maintenance failure". xecutives from Jarvis, the contractor responsible for the section of track at Potters Bar, claimed after the accident that they had uncovered evidence of sabotage. However, investigators have found no evidence of sabotage in the dossier of photographs compiled by Jarvis to support its theory. Eurostar smartens up its act ... By Jeremy Skidmore THE EUROSTAR Group is to spend £35 million over the next three years on a fashion makeover for its cross-Channel train service aimed at winning back high-spending business and corporate customers. Ticket sales fell 7 per cent to 1.77 million in the first quarter of this year, and the three months to June are unlikely to see an improvement. Much of the fall is attributed to factors outside the group’s control and is in the leisure market. It has suffered from a slump in demand following September 11, foot-and-mouth and now the World Cup. But David Azema, Eurostar chairman, admits that sales have been levelling off in business travel as well and wholesale changes are needed to encourage people to switch from flights to Paris and Brussels. While Eurostar has about half the business travel market to the two cities, it is facing increasing competition, with easyJet the latest operator to launch services to the French capital this week. “Our punctuality has improved and now 80 per cent to 85 per cent of trains are on time. But you cannot just be on time and clean. We need to bring something more. We carried out a comprehensive review, we listened to people and we took recommendations to the board,” Azema said. Among some of the complaints from disgruntled passengers were the garish yellow colours on the trains and the quality of the food. About £10 million is being invested in new business class lounges. The first of these opened in London this week, Paris opens on June 24 and Brussels is due for completion at the end of the year. Eurostar has 31 train sets, each with 770 seats, and the rest of the money will be spent on refurbishing them — which will help justify Paris return prices of £405 for First Class and £500 for Premium First. Philippe Starck, the designer, has been brought in to oversee the refurbishments. Azema promises a change of lighting and colours in standard class and a completely different atmosphere in First, with more comfortable seats and improved dining. Premium First will be better still, he claims, with just 14 seats instead of 24. “We have discovered that there is an upper class market that wants something special,” Azema said. “It may be a footballer or just someone who wants their own private space. It will be like being on a private jet. It will also give us something to reward our frequent travellers with. In the same way that British Airways can upgrade people to Concorde, we can upgrade people to Premium First.” Azema will leave before the work is completed. After three years as chairman, he is returning to France to head a subsidiary of Vinci, the French conglomerate. But before he goes he will also oversee the implementation of a new corporate structure, which he claims will also benefit passengers. Eurostar is operated by Eurostar UK, SNCF in France and SNCB in Belgium, a situation that has led to administrative nightmares. “If someone complained in Dijon about an incident in Waterloo, then they would shrug their shoulders and say it was a different company,” said Azema. “When we wanted to get train announcements turned off in First Class, we fitted switches to the trains. But in some countries the announcements would actually be switched on in some trains when they should have been switched off. We couldn’t fit standard mirrors in cabins because the standards were different in the three countries. But this is changing. We now have a unified marketing department Bahn bremst Metrorapid aus Nordrhein-Westfalen gerät mit seinen Planungen für den Metrorapid in Verzug. Auf Antrag der Deutschen Bahn hat die Vergabekammer der Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf dem Land vor wenigen Tagen untersagt, Ingenieurleistungen für das Großprojekt zu vergeben. DPA Der Metrorapid auf dem Bahnhof, freilich nur in einer Computersimulation Der Grund: Die Bahn will unbedingt an der Trassenplanung für die Schnellstrecke zwischen Dortmund und Düsseldorf beteiligt werden, obwohl ihre Tochter DE Consult im Wettbewerb von sechs Bietern nicht zu den drei Favoriten des Landes zählte. In ihrem Nachprüfungsantrag bemängelt die DB-Kanzlei Fritze Paul Schmitt einen "wettbewerbsverzerrenden Wissensvorsprung" der favorisierten Bieter; ferner seien "Auswahl und Anwendung der Wertungskriterien fehlerhaft". Da ein langer Rechtsstreit die von NRW erstrebte Fertigstellung der Strecke zur Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft 2006 unmöglich machen würde, bietet die DB listig einen Ausweg an: Die drei ausgewählten Konsortien sollten die unterlegenen Konkurrenten, darunter natürlich DE Consult, durch Unteraufträge an dem Projekt beteiligen. "Bei einem derartigen Verfahren", heißt es in einem Brief des DB-Vorstands an NRW-Verkehrsminister Ernst Schwanhold, könnten die entstandenen "Irritationen geheilt werden", auch wäre "die Gefahr der Projektverzögerung durch einen vermeidbaren Rechtsstreit gebannt". Wie das Großvorhaben finanziert werden soll, bleibt derweil unverändert offen. Mineta to Push Amtrak to Stay Open By Don Phillips Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 23, 2002; Page A12 Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said yesterday that the Bush administration "is not interested in allowing Amtrak to shut down," and he arranged to meet with the railroad's board tomorrow afternoon to determine what the administration can do to prevent it. The administration also no longer insists on wholesale "reforms" of Amtrak as part of a rescue, but wants assurances that the passenger-train corporation will impose fiscal discipline and increase the flow of information to the government, administration sources said. Amtrak President David Gunn has said Amtrak is so low on cash that it will have to begin an "orderly shutdown" and declare bankruptcy when Congress goes into recess, probably Wednesday or Thursday, unless the administration gives it a loan guarantee or Congress grants it $200 million. Amtrak has never made money in its 31-year history and lost about $1.2 billion last year. A shutdown would end all the country's intercity passenger train service, and would stop or seriously affect most of the country's commuter trains. That includes Virginia Railway Express and most Maryland commuter trains. Federal Railroad Administration staff members are working to determine whether the government can legally guarantee a loan under a law intended for long-term capital needs, the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program. Deliberations so far indicate there may be a way to do it, a source said. Administration sources said Mineta's meeting with the Amtrak board is partly intended to assure the nation that a shutdown almost certainly would not occur, and particularly to reassure commuter railroads that are livid about possibly being caught up in the shutdown. The sources also said administration officials do not think they received adequate financial information from Amtrak, and want to determine if there are alternatives to loan guarantees or appropriations, including the release of unobligated funds or transferring money from other parts of the budget. "I think people [in the administration] are focusing on the problem," Gunn said in an interview, adding that Mineta's request for a meeting "sounds positive to me." Mineta said that even though the administration does not want Amtrak to shut down, "Amtrak must face the reality that difficult decisions need to be made and fundamental management changes need to take place to keep the company alive." "We want Amtrak to succeed, not merely survive from crisis to crisis," he said. In a speech last week, Mineta proposed that states pay more of passenger-train costs, that Amtrak's Boston-Washington Northeast Corridor be spun off to an unspecified "public partnership," and that some Amtrak routes and jobs be contracted out. Some congressional sources viewed yesterday's Transportation Department press release as a dig at Gunn, who is known to have angered some administration officials with his outspokenness and independence in only five weeks on the job. The press release noted that only the Amtrak board can shut down operations and declare bankruptcy. The release also seemed to criticize Gunn's testimony Thursday to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, in which he said the orderly shutdown would have to start sooner than some had expected and that Mineta's proposals were misguided and unworkable. "DOT officials and others found Gunn's testimony alarming since it described a significant acceleration of deadlines reported to the board of directors as recently as three weeks ago," the Transportation Department statement said. Gunn said, however, that he thought the department was stating the obvious because legally, only the board can declare bankruptcy. "I always intended I'd go the board," he said. "You have to go through the bankruptcy process." Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee, cautioned Mineta not to use the meeting to punish Gunn. "The goal of Amtrak's board meeting on Monday should be to ensure the continuation of rail service in this country by insisting that the Bush administration either issue a loan guarantee or request a supplemental appropriation from Congress," Murray said in a statement. "The goal should not be to chastise a CEO for sharing his frank and experienced views on a set of policy proposals on which he was never consulted." Amtrak Shutdown Could Stall Travel MostAmtrak Shutdown Could Stall Travel Most Commuter Service Would Be Halted _____Related Articles_____ • Amtrak May Begin Shutdown in Days (The Washington Post, Jun 21, 2002) • Bush Warned to Be Speedy on Amtrak Funding (The Washington Post, Jun 20, 2002) • U.S. to Offer Amtrak Plan (The Washington Post, Jun 20, 2002) By Don Phillips Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 22, 2002; Page E01 An Amtrak shutdown, threatened for the middle of next week, would ripple far beyond intercity passenger train service to halt or severely curtail rail commuter service along the East Coast and California, officials said yesterday. Any commuter trains that use the national passenger railroad's tracks -- basically the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston -- or are operated by Amtrak under contract or use Amtrak stations, would be affected. In the Washington area, Virginia Railway Express said it would shut down all service. Maryland Rail Commuter Services (MARC) said its Washington-Baltimore Penn Line would shut down, and it is still reviewing options for the Camden and Brunswick lines. No MARC trains could enter Union Station, however. An intercity and commuter rail shutdown could create havoc along the East Coast, where hundreds of thousands of people would be forced onto highways, subways and airports. Amtrak, for instance, now hauls more passengers between Washington and New York than the airline shuttles combined. "This is no way to treat the traveling public," said Pete Sklannik Jr., VRE's chief operating officer. "It's a bad time to play brinksmanship, it really is." Congress and the Bush administration are arguing over how to save Amtrak from a cash crisis that could shut down all the country's intercity passenger service before the July 4 holiday period. Amtrak President David L. Gunn said that unless the Bush administration comes through with a $200 million loan guarantee or Congress is close to appropriating the money, he will begin an orderly shutdown by Wednesday or Thursday. Amtrak also would be placed into bankruptcy under a court-appointed trustee. Federal Railroad Administration staff members said they would work through the weekend to try to make a loan guarantee work, and members of Congress continued to protest what they called the administration's inaction. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said yesterday he would attempt to add $200 million for Amtrak to a Senate appropriations bill for homeland security that is now under negotiation between the Senate and House. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, saying it is too expensive. Administration officials have said they would insist that any additional direct aid to Amtrak be linked to major reforms including eliminating or contracting out some routes. Gunn said a shutdown would take four days or so, enough time to avoid stranding any passengers and to get Amtrak equipment to storage areas where it could be guarded from vandalism until Amtrak's creditors could assume custody in bankruptcy. "We're trying to be as optimistic as we can," Gunn said yesterday. "I really can't believe that wisdom isn't going to prevail in this case." VRE's Sklannik said that he had hoped to be able to operate trains into the L'Enfant Plaza station, but Amtrak informed him yesterday morning that the necessary collective bargaining agreements could not be worked out for VRE to hire the Amtrak engineers that run his trains. The only Amtrak track used by VRE is through the tunnel into Union Station. In addition to the Washington area shutdowns, Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority would be largely shut down, as would New Jersey Transit. "The operational chaos that will result from this is incalculable at this point. It's a disaster," New Jersey Transportation Commissioner James P. Fox told the Associated Press. In New York, Metro North would be largely unaffected since it owns and operates its own trains and tracks from the north and east and uses New York Grand Central Station instead of Amtrak's Penn Station. The Long Island Rail Road could operate as usual with one major exception -- it couldn't get into Manhattan because its trains use Penn Station. Boston's commuter system would be mostly shut down because its trains are operated by Amtrak and use many stretches of Amtrak track and stations. Chicago's Metra would be inconvenienced because many of its trains use Amtrak's Union Station, but other trains into other stations could continue to operate as long as they do not use Amtrak tracks. In California, all commuter service would apparently be shut down, including major systems in Los Angeles and San Francisco, because they are either operated by Amtrak or use Amtrak facilities. In some ways, the Amtrak crisis is a carbon copy of many incidents during the corporation's 31-year existence. Amtrak was formed as a "profit-making" corporation on May 1, 1971, a description long acknowledged as a fabrication by many of the federal staff members who helped form the company. For three decades, Congress gave Amtrak barely enough money to maintain service while ordering it to run trains that passed through the states or districts of key members of the Senate or House. Often, Amtrak management has threatened to shut down certain routes as a way of forcing Congress to come up with more money. Many observers apparently believed that was happening again -- until last week. This crisis is different in two major ways: • Over the last few years, Amtrak has papered over its crises by borrowing against its assets. Amtrak also ran out of cash last year, then mortgaged New York Penn Station for $300 million to keep operating. But Penn Station was the last major asset that Amtrak had to mortgage. • Gunn, on the job only five weeks, is no-nonsense, politically independent and decisive. When he said Amtrak would shut down, people who knew him believed him. The Bush administration has acknowledged that it has no contingency plans if there is a shutdown. FRA Administrator Alan Rutter appeared a little surprised by a question Thursday before a Senate subcommittee as to whether the FRA had a contingency plan. He said he would prefer to spend his time working on a way to keep Amtrak running. Meanwhile, Standard and Poor's downgraded Amtrak's credit rating yesterday to the lowest investment grade, and Moody's placed Amtrak on a a watch list for a possible downgrade. By Don Phillips Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 22, 2002; Page E01 An Amtrak shutdown, threatened for the middle of next week, would ripple far beyond intercity passenger train service to halt or severely curtail rail commuter service along the East Coast and California, officials said yesterday. Any commuter trains that use the national passenger railroad's tracks -- basically the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston -- or are operated by Amtrak under contract or use Amtrak stations, would be affected. In the Washington area, Virginia Railway Express said it would shut down all service. Maryland Rail Commuter Services (MARC) said its Washington-Baltimore Penn Line would shut down, and it is still reviewing options fo • Hearing on Amtrak Funds Called (The Washington Post, Jun 15, 2002) • McCain Pledges Help in Averting Amtrak Shutdown (The Washington Post, Jun 7, 2002) • Amtrak Faces Shutdown In July, Says New Chief (The Washington Post, Jun 6, 2002) • Amtrak Picks New President (The Washington Post, Apr 27, 2002) • Amtrak at Risk Of Shutdown (The Washington Post, Feb 28, 2002) • Council to Unveil Amtrak Plan (The Washington Post, Feb 7, 2002) • Money Woes Threaten Amtrak's Future (The Washington Post, Feb 2, 2002) • Report: Amtrak's Financial Woes Have Worsened (The Washington Post, Jan 26, 2002) By A Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 20, 2002; 6:54 PM Amtrak President David Gunn said today he will have no choice but to begin an orderly shutdown of rail passenger service nationwide "in the middle of next week" unless the Bush administration approves a $200 million loan guarantee or Congress is near passage of a direct appropriation or loan guarantee. At the same time, he said, he will take Amtrak into bankruptcy proceedings and place the passenger train corporation's assets under a court-appointed trustee. However, Federal Railroad Administrator Alan Rutter said the FRA will be unable to give Gunn an answer on his loan guarantee request before early next week. And Rutter and other administration officials also appeared to be playing hard-ball with Congress over whether to give Amtrak a direct $200 million appropriation as part of a supplemental appropriations bill on homeland security, now making its way through Congress, that President Bush has threatened to veto. The Amtrak saga was played out before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on surface transportation, headed by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), where Democratic and Republican senators excoriated Rutter and Transportation Department Chief Financial Officer Donna McLean for failing to take action sooner. Gunn said Amtrak must have time an orderly shutdown, perhaps over a week, so that passengers can have sufficient notice and Amtrak cars and locomotives can be moved to safe storage where they can be guarded from vandalism. Although not all details have been worked out, Amtrak officials indicated that no trains would be stopped immediately and no passengers stranded. All long-distance trains would be allowed to finish their runs, and a date would be set for shutting down the Northeast Corridor. Gunn said it would cost about $50 million to shut down the system and have enough money left over to pay employees to guard the equipment. Other small expenses would continue, such as keeping the overhead electrical wires powered up in the Northeast Corridor so that thieves would not steal the wire. "The urgency of this is enormous," Gunn said. "We are near the point of no return." The suddenness of the shutdown surprised subcommittee members. One possible reason, revealed by Gunn in answer to a question from Murray, is that Amtrak's auditors have discovered that Amtrak's deficit is about $200 million worse than thought for fiscal 2001 – 1.87 billion instead of 990 million. That discrepancy apparently is one of the key reasons auditor KPMG has refused so far to declare Amtrak a "going concern," which makes a bank loan all but impossible to obtain. There was no explanation for the large discrepancy, but after only five weeks on the job, Gunn has been highly critical of Amtrak's bookkeeping and has is instituting a tight new budget system. Gunn called the turn of events "most disturbing" and called Amtrak's former budgeting process "ineffective." "Clearly there's a problem if we have that big a swing," Gunn said. "It's a pretty significant change." In some ways, the Amtrak crisis appeared to be transforming into a "who-blinks-first" political showdown between Congress and the Bush administration, with Gunn caught in the middle. Murray said that if the Bush administration fails to ask for enough money to prevent an Amtrak shutdown, "the administration can explain why it would allow intercity rail passenger service to die when many of us in Congress are ready and willing to fund it." Repeatedly, Rutter and McLean sidestepped pointed questions on whether they would take whatever action necessary to keep Amtrak from shutting down, saying only that they were "working furiously" to determine whether they could legally grant Amtrak's request for a loan guarantee under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program. Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead expressed doubts that Amtrak could legally receive a loan under the program, which is supposed to be for long-term capital needs and not for short-term operating costs. Then McLean surprised the subcommittee by saying that even if Congress goes ahead with a $200 million appropriation, the administration would require that it to be accompanied by "reforms" along the principles laid out yesterday by Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. In a speech yesterday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mineta laid out several principles for Amtrak long-term legislative changes including having states pay a larger share of passenger train costs, spinning off the Northeast Corridor to a "partnership" of states and corridor users, turning Amtrak into a pure operating company and contracting out some services including some routes. Murray shot back: "I want to make one thing clear. The administration has not submitted any reform legislation to this committee or any other committee. All they have done is make a speech. The proposals in the speech are controversial. There is no way that we are going to include any such proposals in the supplemental. If the administration wants reforms, they can propose them in legislation to the authorizing committees." The Mineta principles drew almost universal bipartisan opposition from Congress, with two major exceptions, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who commended Mineta and said the first step to reform should be to fire the entire Amtrak board of directors, and Chairman Don Young of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who also commended Mineta and noted than many of his recommendations can be accomplished without new legislation. The Amtrak Reform Council, which also made similar recommendations, praised the Mineta principles but said it is also important to keep Amtrak running now. That was about the end of the praise for the proposal. Numerous members of Congress, unions and passenger advocacy groups criticized the proposal. Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Transportation subcommittee on railroads, said that Mineta's principles can help with the debate over Amtrak, but clearly what Amtrak needs now is money including the full $1.2 billion request for next fiscal year. In the meantime, the important thing is to prevent the shutdown. Democrats were usually harsher. "Finally after months of delay, we have the administration's model for the future of rail passenger service in America," said Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.). "It was not worth the wait." > |