Customer Reviews

Derailed: What Went Wrong and What to Do About America's Passenger Trains

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Joe Vranich has provided a thought provoking and well written account of the sad state of US passenger trains. Mr Vranich, a former Amtrak official, is now one of the most vocal critics of the US national passenger train service.

The book provides a detailed accounting of the many management failures and broken promises that have bedeviled Amtrak for the past 30 years. However, it is clear that Mr. Vranich has an ax to grind, and indulges in selective presentation of facts. For example, he devotes considerable space on the inability of Amtrak to meet average travel times common in the 1920s to 1940s, laying blame totally on Amtrak inepitude. Yet Amtrak is at the mercy of the freight railroads over whose tracks it runs, and many of the most direct routes between city pairs were abondoned decades ago.

Half way through the book, the reader finally gets to Vranich's main thesis: highspeed rail technology (e.g., maglev) is the only viable future for passenger trains in this country. A reasonable conclusion. Yet he undermines his position by blaming Amtrak and Southwest Airlines for the cancellation of highspeed rail projects in Texas and other states. If they can't make the trains run on time, and clean the bathrooms, and refrigerate the food, how could they possibly conspire to stop a major project funded at the state level? These projects failed because of "not in my back yard" attitudes, and a total lack of interest in the US Congress to put rail on equal footing with highways and aviation.

Vranich gets the big picture right, but falls into a polemical trap made from his own biases.

What strikes me about "Derailed" is that the author admits he's been wrong in the past. How often do we hear such candor from well-known experts? Joseph Vranich, who lobbied on Capital Hill to create Amtrak, now regrets his work. He admits that Amtrak is incapable of running fast trains that are convenient to American travelers. By the time I finished with the book, I agreed with him.

Amtrak imperils its own future. The author explains that Amtrak for the most part ignores market clues about changing travel needs. Instead, Amtrak works to please members of Congress by running trains on an old-fashioned network. Amtrak's political maneuvering means the railroad is headed for higher financial losses and needs more pork-barrel money for questionable projects. Billions more in government subsidies are sure to follow the billions already spent.

But there is much here that's positive about passenger trains in the United States and around the world. Also, "Derailed" offers an imaginative ten-point plan to replace Amtrak with innovative organizations. I've never read anything quite like it. The plan also is a courageous stance for an admitted train-lover like Vranich to take.

Vranich's latest publication "Derailed" gets right to the point. High-speed rail is best because they make money. Commuter trains are good because they carry millions and millions of people to work, the Northeast Corridor is ok but could do better and the long-distance trains must go because they lose lots and lots of money. But there is little in the form of valid facts to back up his theories.

Some not very admirable traits about the modes he advocates just are not mentioned.

Virtually no mention is made of the costs a high-speed rail customer will encounter and what kind of customer would use high-speed trains. Financing costs alone figure from 50 cents to a dollar per passenger mile based on patronage of the highest usage rates by air travelers on the busiest routes. Air travelers in these travel market categories of 200-300 miles tend to be corporate travelers on expense accounts only, not average Americans on a budget.

Although commuter trains get! credited with carrying millions of people annually, only 505,000 customers use these services nationally everyday to and from work. Most of these customers reside in New York City and Chicago only.

Long-distance trains get branded as hopeless losers but the author doesn't mention that it takes only 6,000 employees out of a total of 24,000 Amtrak personnel to operate the national long-distance network.

Although Amtrak's Metroliners get the best reviews we are not made aware that actual transportation provided in terms of passenger miles, is minimal. More passenger miles are generated on the Empire Builder, a single daily train from Chicago to Seattle than the dozens of daily Metroliner departures per day combined.

Costs for users are outrageously high on Metroliners now averaging 58 cents per mile versus an airline average of around 15 cents per mile and around 13 cents on the Empire Builder.

In "Supertrains", Joseph Vranisch introduced the reader to the vital link in mass transportation taking shape in all corners of the world: high speed rail. In "Derailed", the author critically examines Amtrak, meticulously explaining how America's publicly financed passenger rail program has been an abject failure in carving out an important niche in the transportation arena as well as directly and indirectly sabotaging high speed rail programs along the way. Drawing on numerous statistics, Vranich illustrates how, with the exception of the Northeast corridor, Amtrak has done little more than provide Americans with a passenger rail service on a level only encountered in several developing nations. An early chapter also makes note that most of Amtrak's trains currently have longer schedules and endure more mechanical problems than the trains of the 1940's and 50's.

Later chapters of the book outline the success enjoyed by other rail systems that are either a private enterprise or formed by public-private partnerships: commuter rail systems such as those in Chicago and New York, the freight companies such as Burlington Northern and Conrail and the tourist trains such as the Alaska Railroad, which, since its privatization has enjoyed its greatest financial success.

The final chapters center on Vranich's arguments for the dissolution of Amtrak, a 10 step phase-out plan and his proposal for public-private partnerships in future passenger rail service as witnessed by the successful TGV in France. His convictions in this area are both passionate and highly cogent. One can only hope that the leaders of our nation will read this book and use it as a blueprint for reshaping America's transportation infrastructure.

I was disappointed by this book - it seems as if the author has personal vendetta against Amtrak - during the first half of the book, whenever he mentions the average speed of an Amtrak train over a certain line, he feels he must mention all of those trains in other countries that run faster. He bashes any and all Amtrak employees saying that they are basically incompetent. I don't work for Amtrak, and I believe there are some big problems with Amtrak, however I don't think it's as bad as the author portrays it.

Another problem with the book is that during the first half of the book, the author quotes from other sources to the extreme - it almost seems like the chapters are collections of quotes.

Other problems with the book include an unorganized writing style - many of the chapters don't seem to flow logically and points made in one chapter are again made in other chapters. No history of Amtrak or American passenger railroads are given - something which I believe would have gone a long way to explaining how Amtrak has gotten where it has.

The second half of the book is better than the first, but not by much.

Overall, a disappointing read.

Joseph Vranich offers more than a chronology of poor Amtrak service -- he provides convincing arguments that "We need passenger trains, but we don't need Amtrak." That viewpoint has validity as Amtrak's market share declines to its lowest level in history. In fact, more people fly on domestic airlines in two days that ride Amtrak all year.

Although "Derailed" relies a bit too much on statistics, its facts and figures justify "new thinking" about Amtrak's system, which is a throwback to the pre-jetliner, pre-Interstate highway era of the 1950s. Rigidly sticking with the past is costly as Amtrak requires higher per-passenger subsidies than do airlines and highways, suffers financial losses in the billions, and flirted with bankruptcy just last year.

The book fills an enormous void in nonfiction by outlining how nations as diverse as Argentina, Great Britain and Japan are revolutionizing railroads through privatization, devolvement to sta! te governments and liquidation. Americans assume "privatization" is code for "no subsidies," but overseas it means better trains and lower subsidies through competitive bidding for franchises. Vranich argues for a cautious Amtrak phase-out so that needed trains will remain to serve legitimate travel needs, and he would cheer if Richard Branson's Virgin Rail would take over Amtrak's Boston-Washington line.

Today's headlines reflect Vranich's themes. A new report by the U.S. General Accounting Office warns that Amtrak's financial condition remains "precarious" despite traffic increases and Washington's recent multi-billion-dollar bailout of Amtrak. We cannot ignore the advice in "Derailed," which makes sense as Amtrak continues to falter in many parts of the nation.

I read this book not because I'm concerned about Amtrak but because I'm interested in railroads. Derailed turned into the best non-fiction I've read since leaving college a decade ago.

The book takes a fresh approach to tired subjects. Wonder how many passenger trains operate independently of Amtrak in the United States? A photo layout helps illustrate that point. Curious about why Amtrak long-distance trains are in so much trouble? This book explains an ominous market shift where overnight passenger trains are in decline worldwide, even in Europe.

Finally, I understand why Amtrak is in trouble over subsidies. Derailed explains how the "subsidy-per-passenger" is way out of line as compared with per-capita highway and aviation use. That's because Amtrak carries too few people despite Washington's generosity in giving it billions of dollars in subsidies.

I've met people who will never ride Amtrak again. If my company treated our clients the way Amtrak has treated its passengers, we'd be out of business. Derailed touches upon that issue, also, giving readers refreshing food for thought. I don't know if Amtrak will survive or be liquidated, but it appears that the contents of this book will be part of the debate. If a book is a success or failure depending on whether it makes you think -- then Derailed is a huge success.

If anybody is skeptical about Mr. Vranich's message, one only has to consider what Amtrak's been up to since 'Derailed' was published. After paying a New York-based "design consultancy" big bucks, Amtrak has adopted a most insipid name for its new high speed trains. "Acela" is a meaningless string of letters concocted by an overpriced, mediocre consultant. Perhaps the experience of UAL Inc., United Airlines' holding company, in the late 1980s would be illustrative. UAL acquired Hertz Rent-A-Car and Western International hotels and attempted to reposition itself as a "total travel conglomerate". The name selected by UAL, "Allegis" was universally ridiculed and ultimately dropped. Donald Trump was widely quoted in the press as saying "Allegis" sounded like the next world class disease. "Acela" sounds like the HMO that handles cases of "Allegis". Other wags have commented that it's an acronym for "Amtrak Customers Experience Late Arrivals". Vranich was right.

In the midst of renewed interst in the future of AMTRAK, Jospeh Vranich has delivered the best available work on the subject.

AMTRAK must be viewed in a multi-modal passanger an freight enviroment. Saddled with antiquated thinking, and a politically motivated route structure, the ability of AMTRAK to deliver on the promise of future profitability is indeed open to question. Vranich provides the history, politics, technical information, and marketing factors which will effect futre passenger rail operations in the United States. Although controversial, his facts are well researched and his opinions appear well founded. I found the book quite readable, and a must buy for anyone intersted in the area of passenger rail transportation.

There is nothing better than traveling by train. They are far more enjoyable and comfortable than a car or a plane (especially for distances of 50-250 miles), and high speed trains are just flat out cool. I only wish that train travel in America was a viable transportation alternative - but it is not. Joseph Vranich helped build Amtrak when passanger rail was "failing" in the late 1960s. Now he is one of its most staunch enemies.

This book is not that complex, making it accessible to the casual railfan rather than a government policy wonk or rail industry insider. Vranich lays out what and why Amtrak has failed. He also explains what a post-Amtrak world would look and how a transition back to private railroads is to be accomplished in the buraucratic and political reality in which it exists today.

In retrospect, Amtrak probably never should have been created. With visionary leadership and limited government/legal intervention, the railroads probably would have rebounded along with the 80s-90s travel boom spurred on by airline deregulation. Another book worth reading is "Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Roads and Rails in the American Century" by Stephen Goddard. In it, the author lays out why railroads declined in post-WWII America - placing Vranich's work into a more historical context. Railroads collapsed because of exessive government regulations hampering their inability to compete with the less regulated automobile.

Which leads me to my review's title. I read this book a few years ago and was compelled to revisit it when reading recently, in relationship to the 2004 presidential race, of the failure of the Amtrak Reform Council (aimed at privatizing Amtrak). I was reminded of the current debate on health care. There is a health care crisis looming and it is the result too much government regulation in the pharmacutical and health insurance industries. One needs only to look at the current flu vaccine crisis to see the hand of excessive government regulations and price controls causing shortages. Vranich's book serves as a cautionary warning to us all of what can happen when government takes over an industry its own regulations helped to destroy. Government run passenger rail service in this country is a disgrace and a disaster. The parallels between the railroad and health care industries in this regard are stunning. Vranich explores rail privatization in Europe and elsewhere; similar privatization plans existed in the failed European public health care industry.

Vranich's book is a must read for people who worry about the government-run trains, but also for those of us who worry about a government take-over of 1/7 of the US economy, the health care industry.

Maybe, I'm a bit out there in drawing the comparision, but I doubt it. After reading Vranich's book and seeing the state of American passenger train, I hope I'm wrong. The thought of a hospital run like an Amtrak train scares the crap out of me.