The United States’ intercity rail system is a vital lifeline for its tens of millions of annual passengers.
However, the existing system can seem maddeningly archaic. I experienced the strengths and weaknesses of that system on a recent Amtrak trip from DC to see family in Florida – the 2019 edition of the trip I wrote about last year.
But after I got to the Sunshine State, I caught a glimpse of a possible future for our rail system: one where Amtrak is not the only company that provides intercity service. With multiple companies to choose from, states that subsidize regional routes will benefit from competition for operating contracts. And in markets across the country with high demand, these companies will have an opportunity to operate profitably, giving them even more resources to support improved and more extensive service.
***
I traveled to southern Florida in coach class on Amtrak’s overnight Silver Meteor train. The trip, aboard 1970s-era railcars traveling at up to 79 mph, was enjoyable, but an imperfect product provided by a company that faces plenty of external challenges and seems stuck in its ways.
Some of the Silver Meteor’s issues were due to shortcomings associated with the U.S.’s freight-oriented rail infrastructure – and general transportation culture – that are outside of Amtrak’s control. For example, south of Richmond, VA, somebody got their car stuck on the tracks. Our train, with a couple hundred people aboard, had to wait an hour for a tow truck to show up and drag the unoccupied vehicle out of the way. (No Amtrak employees ever announced the delay’s cause, so I had to go out of my way to ask the conductor for this information.)
Amtrak has adjusted to the ever-present threat of these types of delays by building lots of padding into its schedules, giving trains a chance to make up time. I benefited from this padding on a recent DC-to-Chicago trip, when the Amtrak Cardinal train fell as much as one hour and 45 minutes behind schedule while passing through West Virginia but recovered to pull into the Windy City right on time.
But in my experience, most Amtrak trains normally do not perform as well as the Cardinal did when they fall behind schedule.
For example, whenever the Silver Meteor had opportunities to make up time, long dwell times at stops stymied any gains. While most rail operators encourage riders to spread out and board through all available doors, on long-distance Amtrak routes passengers often must line up in single file outside outlying-area “Amshacks” – rain or shine – to await ticket scans and seat assignments.
***
The day after I arrived in Florida, I was again riding the rails, this time with my grandmother on a brand-new Brightline train from West Palm Beach to Miami.
The route, which Virgin Rail Group acquired last year and plans to extend to Orlando, isn’t the high-speed rail line Florida could have had. The segment of the route in operation faces infrastructural limitations comparable to the Silver Meteor’s, such as grade crossings and a right-of-way shared with freight trains, and maxes out at 79 mph (though trains traveling to Orlando will reach 125 mph).
But the company’s emphasis on customer service helps make up for the route’s limited operating speed.
For example, Brightline’s stations – all of which sit in the hearts of their respective downtowns – are fitted with lounge-style areas that passengers can wait in before being directed to the correct platform 10 minutes before departure, contrasting starkly with the chaotic boarding processes of the Northeast or their smaller-scale outdoor brethren that held up the Silver Meteor. On the day we rode, ridership was strong, but stations and platforms were comfortable, announcements were clear, the trains were on time, and employees provided helpful assistance to passengers.
Brightline fare gates at MiamiCentral. Photo by Phillip Pessar on Flickr’s Creative Commons.
My grandma, who’s never ridden CTA’s ‘L’ despite living in the Chicago area for decades, enjoyed the day’s transportation experiences enough that she seemed open to, in the future, trying out Miami’s Metrorail system (which stops right near Brightline’s station) and exploring a different part of the city.
***
Brightline is currently the U.S.’s only major intercity rail line that’s not part of the Amtrak system, and also the only such route outside the Northeast that doesn’t receive an operating subsidy from state taxpayers.
Though Brightline’s ridership has steadily increased since service launched, rising 7 percent to more than 78,000 monthly boardings in February (exceeding credit rating agency Fitch’s projections), it remains to be seen whether the route will turn a direct profit. Operations on the current segment – which largely parallels the pre-existing, taxpayer-subsidized Tri-Rail, a suburban line connecting Miami and Palm Beach County – have thus far required substantial funding from parent company Florida East Coast Industries.
Brightline’s management expects the route’s cash flow to turn positive this year, and the company successfully sold $1.75 billion in bonds to fund the planned extension to Orlando earlier this month, demonstrating that investors are confident in these projections. Expected near-term benefits are not strictly financial, however, as a connecting track set to open later this year will allow Tri-Rail trains to operate more frequently. The additional Tri-Rail trains will use the new track to reach Brightline’s MiamiCentral Station, eliminating the need for passengers heading downtown to transfer to Metrorail.
A number of other privately funded routes are also under development. In 2018, Brightline/Virgin acquired XpressWest, a company that has proposed a Southern California-to-Las Vegas rail line. At first the line will only reach exurban Victorville, but the goal is to connect it to California’s under-construction high-speed rail route. And Texas Central Railway, which recently received $300 million in financing from Japanese sources, plans to build a high-speed line connecting Dallas and Houston.
These developments suggest that intercity passenger rail may be the next form of transportation to receive an influx of private investment. If such funding brings high-quality train service to states like Florida, Texas, and Nevada that currently don’t fund frequent corridor routes, this would be a good thing, potentially even helping unify Green New Deal proponents and free market libertarians.
***
The rise of new rail operators could also give states that do fund intercity rail more options to choose from, making it easier for them to provide service that meets riders’ needs.
Currently, these routes are managed much like local public transportation systems are. However, while most transit agencies can either directly operate their service or select from a multitude of contractors, states typically have one choice for their intercity rail corridors: Amtrak.
Since Amtrak’s creation, the only exception to this rule was a Mike Pence-governed Indiana, which contracted operation of the state-subsidized Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State train to Iowa Pacific Holdings in 2015. While Amtrak continued selling tickets for the route and managing the stations, Iowa Pacific upgraded the route’s onboard amenities (even adding a full dining car) and ridership rose. But in the end, Indiana’s experiment didn’t work out.
Major challenges affected the route’s performance. The Hoosier State is the least frequent state-subsidized train in the country, operating only four round trips per week (it combines with the aforementioned long-distance Cardinal to provide daily service on the Chicago-Indianapolis route) on freight tracks that, even by U.S. standards, limit operating speeds.
Also, Iowa Pacific had no prior experience operating a regularly scheduled passenger train. Unsurprisingly, the company’s train equipment suffered from mechanical problems, harming reliability.
Iowa Pacific opted out of the contract in 2017, saying that Indiana was not providing sufficient funding. As a result, Hoosier State operation reverted back to Amtrak. And Governor Eric Holcomb proposed cutting all state funding for the route in this year’s budget, which would reduce Chicago-Indianapolis rail service to only the three-day-per-week Cardinal if the legislature agrees to his wishes. Due to this threat, Amtrak has suspended ticket sales for Hoosier State trips after July 1.
***
In contrast to Iowa Pacific, companies like Brightline and Texas Central have demonstrated through their partnerships and stated ambitions that they’re serious about operating fast, frequent, reliable rail service, making them capable of improving state-managed routes around the country.
If companies like these compete with Amtrak for such routes’ operating contracts, not only will states have more flexibility to choose the operator that best serves their mobility goals, but Amtrak would be forced to step up its game to remain competitive.
Resulting fixes for small, but meaningful issues – like inefficient communication and boarding – could even be expanded to Amtrak’s nationally-managed long-distance system, attracting more riders and making intercity rail travel a more mainstream form of mobility throughout the country.