Obama Discusses High Speed Rail

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

BRISTOL, Va. — As he begins the general election contest for the White House, Democrat Barack Obama is targeting the voters he had the hardest time winning in the primaries: those who are white and working class.

The Illinois senator told USA TODAY Thursday that his appearance here in a small town on the Virginia-Tennessee border represented the first stop in a 2½-week tour about economic issues. The trip will also take him to several states won by his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, during the Democratic primaries, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

Obama laid out his campaign plans during an interview in the library of Bristol's Virginia High School.

"What we're going to do over the next 2½ weeks is focus on the economy, which is what is pressing on the American people so severely," Obama said.

During the tour, he said he plans to "offer some very concrete solutions as to how we deal with both the short-term squeeze that (working-class Americans are) under and how over the long term we right the economic ship."

Obama also touched on his search for a vice presidential nominee, his plans to visit Iraq and a conversation he had yesterday with John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

To start, he laid out ambitious plans to increase funding for a host of domestic programs, including a 10-year, $150 billion "Apollo-style program" to develop new energy sources.

On the economy, his agenda includes "significant investment" in the nation's transportation system. Obama said he'll also discuss plans to expand retirement accounts — with the addition of matching funds from the U.S. government — and to pump more money into the nation's education system.

Obama did not discuss details or costs of these proposals. But he said he'd pay for his programs by raising taxes on wealthy taxpayers, eliminating corporate tax loopholes and ending the war in Iraq, which is costing the U.S. government $10 billion a month.

Among his ideas to address climate change and the skyrocketing cost of fuel, he said he favors a major expansion of high-speed rail service.

"We could connect the Midwest with a high-speed rail system that would provide immediate jobs," he said, adding that it would also be a "much more energy-efficient" alternative to air transport.

The senator, who has faced criticism for not wearing a flag pin on his lapel, sported one here. He initially resisted wearing a flag pin because "my attitude was my patriotism is what's in my heart," Obama said. He changed his mind after an Internet rumor campaign about his patriotism.

"I just wanted to make sure that nobody was confused because there were e-mails going out that somehow I didn't say the Pledge of Allegiance and so forth," he said. "I just wanted to knock down those lies."

Earlier, in a high school gym, Obama told an enthusiastic crowd of about 2,000 it's no accident he chose to make his first appearance as the party's presumptive nominee here — in a community where the population is mostly white and the median income is well below the national average.

The community represents "so many people who have been forgotten," Obama said. "Washington hasn't been listening to you and hasn't been paying attention to you."

The last Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The last one to visit the southwestern corner of the state, said local Democratic congressman Rick Boucher, was John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Obama told reporters on his campaign plane he had a jovial conversation with McCain, when his rival gave him a congratulatory phone call Wednesday.

"We joked if you'd asked any of the pundits a years ago whether it would be him and me as nominees, you wouldn't have gotten many takers," he said.

He's "definitely interested" in McCain's proposal for a series of unmoderated town hall meetings, Obama said. In the interview and in his appearance here, Obama criticized McCain's tax and health care policies as being skewed toward the wealthy.

Among his other comments:

• On picking a running mate. When asked whether considering Clinton, Obama demurred, saying she'd be on anybody's short list.

Earlier in the day, the Clinton campaign said she was not angling for a spot on the ticket. "She is not seeking the vice presidency, and no one speaks for her but her," communications director Howard Wolfson said. "The choice here is Senator Obama's and his alone."

Obama is in no hurry to make a choice, naming "before the (late August) convention" as his deadline. He'll seek "somebody I could trust to be president" and "somebody with integrity," he said.

•On Iraq. "I will be going to Iraq, I'm almost certain, before the election," said Obama, who has made withdrawing U.S. troops a priority of his platform. "One of my most important tasks is to deal effectively with the situation in Iraq, in Afghanistan and with the threat of terrorism generally."

•On race. Obama alluded to his historic status as the nation's first black nominee of a major party during his appearance here, telling the audience that "I'm proud of America for giving me this opportunity because obviously we all know it's a sign of enormous growth in this country."

•On campaign finance. Obama said he'll accept public financing for his campaign — which would limit the amount of spending — only if McCain agrees to curb spending by the Republican National Committee. "I won't disarm unilaterally," he said.

Obama has raised about $265 million to date, while McCain has raised about $90 million.

After appearing here, Obama traveled to a rally in northern Virginia's D.C. suburbs, then headed back to his hometown of Chicago to take the weekend off. He's looking forward to "a date" tonight with his wife, Michelle, a round of golf on Saturday ("the best I can do is the low 80s," Obama said) and a bike ride with his children on Sunday.

Not that he is expecting it to be entirely relaxing. On Saturday night, Obama will face a challenge familiar to many American parents: Eight 7-year-olds are due at his house for a birthday sleepover in honor of his daughter, Sasha.

"These kids are planning to make pizza so who knows what our kitchen will look like," Obama said. "They shouldn't call these sleepovers. They should call them wake-overs."

Amtrak testimony about Missouri Services Woes

Near the end of the Missouri Legislative session, Ray Lang testified on the troubles Amtrak has in running the St. Louis to Kansas City routes. Here is his testimony.

Good morning. My name is Ray Lang. I am the Senior Director of State and Local Government Affairs for Amtrak, based in Chicago. In this position, I am responsible for Amtrak’s day-to-day relationships with state governments all across the country. Since I’ve been in Amtrak’s Government Affairs department, I’ve spend a great deal of time here in the Capitol Building in Jefferson City and it is a pleasure to be back here this morning. Thank you for this opportunity to address you. Amtrak has been a partner with the State of Missouri in operating daily, round-trip trains between St. Louis and Kansas City since 1979. Although in some years there have been discussions about operating on a single round-trip, service frequency has been steady during the past few years at two round-trips. However, ridership on these trains has been far from steady. In fact, of all the state-supported routes managed from Chicago, the service on this route through Jefferson City is the only one to show a year-to-year ridership decline from 2005 to 2006. In the 12 months ending last September (which constitute the Amtrak fiscal year), ridership on the trains called the Missouri Mules and the Ann Rutledge fell by more than 17-thousand to end up at about 119-thousand, a nearly 13-percent drop. That’s a big fall from the nearly 140-passengers just three years ago, and a far cry from the all-time high of nearly 180-thousand passengers in 1998. And it’s down again this year, by nearly 12-percent between October and April. What’s happened? The service suffers from poor on-time performance and inconsistency due, in large part, to the extremely heavy freight traffic on this Union Pacific corridor. Over the past several years, the corridor has seen a sharp increase in the number of coal trains from the Powder River Basin and it is also a key U-P route for intermodal and general merchandise trains, with the total number of trains around 60 per day. Union Pacific indicates that train volumes will continue to rise over the next several years. The congestion problem, and thus Amtrak’s operating performance, is further aggravated by the fact that Union Pacific has been performing extensive and lengthy maintenance activities on this route for each of the past several years. Because of the nature of the physical plant and ever-increasing impacts from growing train volumes, it is anticipated that heavy maintenance activity will continue in each of the future years, thus continuing to disrupt traffic flow. Last Friday, we cancelled Amtrak trains because U-P told us the route was too congested with freight trains to operate without huge delays. The night before, one of our Kansas City to St. Louis trains arrived in St. Louis five hours late on a trip that is supposed to last fewer than six hours: that’s an 11-hour trip across Missouri that began at half-past-noon and mercifully ended at 11:25 p.m. And all of this is happening after we’ve lengthened schedules and changed departure times – with the consent of U-P and the Missouri Department of Transportation – in order to try to promise a schedule and deliver passengers according to that timetable. Unreliable trains will never be popular. In fact, on-time performance is the biggest single factor in customer satisfaction. An on-time performance figure that shows fewer than ____ of the trains on time – and several many hours late – damages your credibility and ours and leads all of us to ask if this is sustainable. Simply put, status quo with the current passenger rail service on this route is un-sustainable as practical business matter, even with congested highways and gasoline prices of more than three-dollars. Almost certainly, without a major change, our trains and your dollars can be better used elsewhere. What can be done? As you will hear in other testimony, this Union Pacific route needs a massive amount of capital spending to improve capacity in order to operate passenger trains reliably and attract passengers to relieve congestion on Interstate 70. The good news is Congress is taking up a Senate Bill 294, an Amtrak re-authorization bill that would finally provide Missouri and other states with a federal partnership for capital costs such as those sorely needed here. There are 37 co-sponsors of this bi-partisan bill. However, even if this bill or a House counterpart is passed and funded by Congress, you can count on many of the 13 other states with state-supported Amtrak service to line up with ready-to-go plans and matching funds. Some, including California, Illinois, Michigan and North Carolina, will argue the tens-of-millions they have already invested in capital costs will put them at the head of the line. And the 35 other states without state-sponsored trains, including Minnesota, Montana, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, will probably want to be in queue, too. Amtrak stands ready to work with MoDOT, U-P and others to prepare a plan to make targeted improvements to this route in order to be ready if Congress acts and Missouri provides the matching funds. What else can be done? There are two other Amtrak routes in Missouri that do not now receive state-support: the Southwest Chief through Kansas City and LaPlata on its way to and from Chicago and Los Angeles and the Texas Eagle through St. Louis and Poplar Bluff and its way to and from Chicago and San Antonio. Together with this Kansas City-St. Louis route, Missouri has the makings of a passenger rail network. That’s why we were excited to work with MoDOT on a study of new service to Springfield and want to look at other routes that might be of interest to you and others in the Legislature. A network of connecting trains, some state-supported and others not, is what is leading to successes across the country. When I travel throughout the country discussing Amtrak and passenger rail, I regularly refer to the California model -- expenditures of roughly two-billion-dollars toward the expansion and upgrade of passenger rail during the last decade, with no matching Federal funds, and regular double-digit growth in ridership and revenue. Now our partnership with your neighbors in Illinois is often my point of reference. Illinois is now Amtrak’s second largest partnership. We operate passenger trains on four different State corridors, with at least three more routes being studied. Last year, the Illinois legislature more than doubled prior-year funding for Illinois D-O-T’s Amtrak program to add train frequencies on the first three of these corridors and we are looking forward to the 28-million-dollars in operating funding, plus a capital program, in the coming year’s budget. The expanded service began on October 30th of last year, and I know it is safe to say that all of us at Amtrak, as well as our partners at Illinois DOT, are thrilled with the success of the new trains. Specifically, ridership on the Chicago–Springfield–St. Louis corridor has increased by almost 45 percent since the introduction of the two new frequencies on that route last fall. Ridership on the Chicago-Quincy route has increased by more than 33 percent since the second round-trip was added, and ridership on the Chicago-Carbondale route has gone up by more than 55 percent since the second daily round-trip was added to that corridor. Two of these Chicago round-trips end within two miles of the Missouri border at Quincy and five of these round-trips go into Missouri at St. Louis. All this terrific news equals more than 100-thousand additional passengers in the first six months and demonstrates a demand for the new service, despite a noticeable need for infrastructure, equipment and service improvements. It also demonstrates the importance of the new service to the communities served. Based on experience, let me assure you that demand across the country will continue to rise as infrastructure, equipment, operating performance and service quality makes the rail alternative increasingly appealing, and as rising fuel costs, congestion and environmental concerns further enhance that appeal. And with leadership and the state and local level, it can happen in Missouri, too. We are glad to have Missouri as our partner as we move forward; we hope to be just as good a partner for you as you move forward. And, I'll say it once again, we need to move forward in Missouri to grow a network of passenger trains, where one route can step up if another is faltering, where safe and economical passenger trains are also considered reliable and comfortable. The alternative to investment and growth is un-sustainable. The annual struggle to keep running un-reliable trains is un-supportable. As passengers try trains once and say “never again” because of delays that are both un-ending and predictable, ridership will continue to tumble and the state’s contract costs will rise. If driving is faster – at least much of the time – passengers will opt out of trains almost all of the time. Thank you again for the invitation to join you this morning. I will be happy to answer any questions.

Amtrak Skeptical about St. Louis - Springfield Route

Below is the press release that Amtrak issued concerning proposed service between St. Louis and Springfield. Missouri has made no significant investment in passenger rail, unlike in many other states such as Illinois where the state and freight railroads have made joint investments to improve service.

CHICAGO – Amtrak has provided a report to the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) that shows formidable obstacles to possible passenger rail service between St. Louis and Springfield, Mo. The report requested by MoDOT found strategic merit to the proposed route, including serving the state’s third largest metropolitan area, tourism potential, and connections to Amtrak’s national rail service. However, it would also require an initial significant capital investment and ongoing state operating support. The lack of a competitive trip time versus that of automobiles and a lower than expected ridership projection were also cited as concerns.

Specifically, the report found the route as-is would generate only 34,000 passengers annually, including 5,000 connecting from the current state-supported Amtrak service between St. Louis and Kansas City. This is primarily due to the lengthy travel times on the nearly 235 miles of track, largely owned by the BNSF Railway, with train speeds lower than that of the adjacent Interstate 44. The result is a trip time of almost six hours -- nearly twice that of driving -- even after building a $4 million track connection between the BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad to shorten the route and complement the current state-supported service at Kirkwood, Mo. by adding a stop there. The low speeds are mainly due to the BNSF track as it follows the undulating terrain in the scenic Ozark Foothills, with much of it as curvature.

The report estimates the direct cost of providing the service would be $4.1 million annually and would generate approximately $700,000 in ticket revenue. The initial annual state contract cost would be approximately $3.4 million. Another issue is the lack of available station infrastructure at proposed train stops in Sullivan, Rolla, Lebanon, and Springfield. Communities along the existing St. Louis to Kansas City service receive no state funding for station construction and must fund these projects locally. Proposed changes to federal regulations require all new train stations meet new standards, to include a full-length platform to serve the longest passenger train using the line. It could cost several million dollars per stop to construct the required station infrastructure. Due to cost constraints, Amtrak was not asked to study a major re-engineering of railway to achieve a higher differential for passenger train speeds versus freight trains. MoDOT’s rail section estimated the initial service would require warning system upgrades to 25 existing grade crossings at a cost of approximately $6 million. Substantial up-front costs for railcars and locomotives, crew training and other mobilization costs were also not within the study scope.

“While we were hoping for more positive news in Amtrak’s analysis of this proposed passenger rail service expansion, MoDOT will continue to seek to increase transportation options for Missourians,” said Brian Weiler, MoDOT’s multimodal director, who outlined passenger rail service expansion, including Amtrak’s report, to the Southwest Missouri Council of Governments (SMCOG) today in Springfield.

A summary table and schedule mock-up is attached to this release and the report is available for download from the state’s www.morail.org website.

Mega Bus...threat to Amtrak?

Recently Megabus, the London based low cost firm, began offering daily service between St. Louis and Chicago and St. Louis and Kansas City. There are currently three round trips a day between Chicago and St. Louis and two between St. Louis and Kansas City. Sometimes fares are as low as a $1. Last week, my wife and I, on a whim, decided to take an overnight trip to Kansas City to shop on the Plaza and just see the sights. Normally we would book Amtrak for such a trip and have done so many times in the past. We love riding the train, but our enthusiasm has wained with the slow service on the Union Pacific line due to constant maintenance and capacity issues.

Last week MoDOT issued a press release criticizing the UP for being unable to deliver the trains on time. Amtrak was supposedly back to a normal schedule mid week, but my friend Ron McLinden was reporting Amtrak running two hours behind schedule late in the week. Bottom line, we decided to give Megabus a try which lists a 3.5 hour trip between St. Louis and Kansas City.

We booked our tickets on line and got two round trip tickets for $40. We looked at Southwest and it was going to be $300 for booking that late. We arrived at Union Station about 5:15 a.m. Saturday for a scheduled 5:35 a.m. departure. We drove where normally we would take MetroLink, but on Saturdays the trains just begin to arrive at Union Station about 5:30 a.m. and we didn't want to risk missing the bus. Megabus rolled in right on schedule and about 25 passengers got off, having started out in Chicago at 11:55 p.m. on Friday. We parked in a Union Station lot which we knew would be expensive, but hadn't figured a better alternative. Since parking downtown is free on weekends, we thought about street parking, but there are no parking signs downtown between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. It seemed most people were being dropped off by others. Megbus offers no parking suggestions on its website.

The driver was a gentleman in his mid to late 60s I guess. He looked tired was pleasant enough, but not all that welcoming. About 15 people got on the bus with us that I supposed had seats for 44. The bus was new and clean on the inside, although it would have been nice if the driver had taken a moment to go through the bus after the Chicago passengers got off, to pick any stray candy wrappers. There were a few stay peanuts between the seats as well.

The bus seats seemed too small and close together to my liking. (They are smaller than Southwest and much smaller than Amtrak.) I am tall, so that is always an issue. Had there been a person in front who had reclined the seat, it would have been too cramped. There is no arm rest between the two seats so if the bus were crowded, it would seem too close for comfort if sharing a seat with a stranger. (If I were traveling alone, I might consider buying two tickets since they are so cheap, to make sure I got two seats.)

Two ladies boarded the bus and said, like us, they were trying the bus since Amtrak was unreliable.

At 5:35 a.m. we were off to KC. I had not ridden a bus very far since making a trip on Greyhound from Vancouver to Nanaimo in Canada. I remember the seats on Greyhound being roomier. The suspension on the bus was good, and the ride fairly pleasant, although not as nice as the train. There was a restroom which I did not use on either leg of the trip.

My wife engaged the driver in conversation, she was afraid he was fatigued. I-70 was pretty clear that time of the day until we got to the Kansas City suburbs. It turns out our driver had worked as a mechanic at the CTA for 40 years and was doing this job as a substitute driver. At about Independence he called to find out directions to get to the the KCATA Bus Transfer Center at 10th and Main which is the final destination, something I thought he would have done prior to the trip.

He got directions, but misinterpreted them and got off I-70 at Indiana Street, a far cry from 13th. One of the passengers apparently from KC got him straightened out and we got to our stop at about 9:40, 25 minutes past the scheduled arrival, but at a more realistic four hours. I figure it was comparable to the time it takes to fly and two to four hours faster than Amtrak and a little longer had we driven ourselves if you consider we left home at 5 a.m. for a 5:35 a.m. departure. It also was faster by 40 minutes than Greyhound which makes stops in Columbia and Boonville on its way to KC.

From the bus transfer Center we took the KCATA 57 bus to the Plaza and we walked a couple of blocks to the hotel.

While in KC, we took the cab three times for a total of $55. These were choice rides. We chose a restaurant that was off the beaten path when we had a choice of dozens of great restaurants on the Plaza and easily could have walked to one. I bring up the costs of the cab fares, because our total transportation expense for the weekend was $128 including the parking at Union Station. We chose to ride Mega Bus to avoid the pain of driving, not so much because of the cost. I might have been able to rent a car for about the same amount of money since most weekend rates are quite low.

Sunday we left KC on the 12:15 p.m. bus. This driver was younger, more engaging and looked very professional. While we were waiting to depart, three people walked up and inquired about the bus, schedules etc. One passenger was dealing with the parking problem in Kansas City. He had driven to KC from southeast Kansas to catch the bus. He ended up leaving his truck at a hotel which promised to be kind about it. He was off to Chicago. Megabus should figure something out about parking and list suggested long-term parking sites on its website and as I said earlier, a 15 minute later departure from St. Louis would enable passengers to use MetroLink to access Union Station.

We left KC right on time with 22 people on board. Passengers on both trips seemed to be of college age. There was one family. Other than one passenger on the return trip talking on his cellphone for too long (15 minutes?) everyone was well behaved, had showered recently and either slept or read.

On the return trip, the driver spent most of the trip in the left lane with cruise control set on 72 mph. He drove faster than I though necessary, but he was attentive and safe. We made the return trip in 3 hours and 45 minutes, averaging just under 70 mph.

Would I do it again? Maybe. You can't beat the price or the time. Although I would prefer the comfort, safety and amenities of the train. The state of Missouri and the federal government needs to hold UP's feet to the fire about keeping Amtrak on schedule. Missouri needs to work with the UP to increase capacity and speeds on the line from STL to KC and Amtrak needs greater frequency between Kansas City and St. Louis or else more people will learn of Megabus and cut into Amtrak's market.

US Passenger Rail Woes

CMT Member Bill Heger wrote the following letter to the Post-Dispatch which was published today April, 9. It was good and I thought I would share it.

We read in "High on speed: French train tops 357 mph" (April 4) about the French TVG traveling at 375 miles per hour and wonder why we can't have that in our country. Well, it is because we have people in Washington and Jefferson City who willfully spend money endlessly on roads but refuse to give Amtrak enough money even to maintain a minimal system.

Right now, the two trains between St. Louis and Kansas City are in danger of being discontinued. This, when gas prices are rising and our oil supply is in danger of being cut off because of events in the Middle East. Yet our politicians just keep force-feeding us the petroleum/automotive industrial complex. Meanwhile, France is willing to put forth the money for such trains because it sees them as a transportation priority. In our country, we maintain a Third World passenger train system and barely keep that going.

What will it take for America to change its ways? How high will the price of gas have to get? How many more homes will be taken, fields paved and forests cut for more roads? How soon will it be before our young people are sent to a war for oil (or is that already happening)? We can do anything in the name of the almighty automobile, but when it comes to intercity rail transportation, we just sit on our hands and wait for the crisis to happen. When the crisis does happen, we will sit and wonder why.

Bill Heger | Rock Hill