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End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains

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This attack on Amtrak seems to ignore the comparison to how much of the taxpayers' money is spent on supporting a money losing airline industry as well as an interstate highway system abused by trucks that are HEAVILY subsisidzed by the federal government. The amount of money lost per person is much less with Amtrak than any other public transportation means.

If your idea of a good time is sitting down on a winter night to read a page-turning, scary story, End of the Line, a new book by transportation expert Joseph Vranich is just the ticket for you. Unfortunately, unlike Bigfoot and other fictional monsters, in this case the horror is all too real and the monster is Amtrak, a federally managed corporation that operates America's rail network.

Vranich's book is not a weighty tome, but with more than 75 pages of notes and appendices, it packs a mighty punch. His tale of a socialistic passenger rail monopoly run amuck will send chills up and down your spine. As if the $27 billion in direct taxpayer subsidies Congress has provided Amtrak is not frightening enough, Vranich explains how Amtrak received a $2.18 billion income tax "refund" in 1997 even though it has never paid income taxes. He exposes the fact that Amtrak's real subsidies far exceed the advertised $27 billion, because:

The railroad has defaulted on a $1.1 billion loan that was ultimately paid for by Uncle Sam;
Federal agencies and state and local governments often foot the bills for train stations and infrastructure that are Amtrak's rightful responsibilities; and,
Amtrak even suckered the Canadian government into providing $1 billion in low-interest loans for its purchase of Canadian-made rail equipment.

Worse than the fiscal horror story in Vranich's book is the fact that Amtrak has been asleep at the switch in managing the tunnels it owns under New York City. These busy venues are prime terrorist targets and even a train accident could be a disaster -- yet, Amtrak continues to under-invest in upkeep on these important assets in order to shift resources to little-traveled, money-losing (though politically essential) long haul routes in the west. As Vranich points out, the DOT's own Inspector General, Kenneth Mead, does not trust Amtrak to make the needed tunnel work a priority. Yet, narrow, winding spiral staircases, crumbling walkways, inadequate ventilation, and lack of standpipes to bring water for fighting fires all make the condition of New York's train tunnels a clear and present danger not only to Amtrak passengers traveling through New York, but also to the 500,000 users of commuter rail who travel through Penn Station each weekday.

In shedding light on Amtrak's true nature, Vranich reveals a gruesome picture indeed, but as a "train person" at heart, (Vranich previously worked for Amtrak), he is optimistic that -- if unburdened from Amtrak's bureaucracy and incompetence -- passenger rail can be viable in America. In fact, the last half of End of the Line outlines how other nations including Britain and Japan (to name just a couple) have reformed their passenger rail networks, thus saving taxpayers billions of dollars and providing superior service to rail passengers.

Whether your interest is trains, taxes, or the federal government's inherent tendency to expand, you will find this book enlightening and fascinating. Vranich has undoubtedly added intellectual fuel to the fire of those calling for major reform or outright privatization of one of America's most dangerously incompetent monopolies.

End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains is the best analysis of the efforts to reform Amtrak ever to be put into printed form. The fact that the book is written by Joseph Vranich, a former spokeman for, and ardent supporter of Amtrak (now a critic of) speaks volumes about the troubles facing this storied government agency.

Vranich has an insider's view of the history of the railroad having helped lobby for its creation and from being there in its early years on through to helping convince Congress to pass the authorization for the Acela Express program in the early 90s as President of the High Speed Rail Association.

Vranich does an excellent job of laying out the particulars of the problems with reform efforts to save Amtrak. With details that reminds this reviewer at times of characters straight out of an Ayn Rand novel, Vranich does an excellent job of telling the story in a way that takes dry material and makes it interesting yet informative.

When I heard that Joe Vranich had authored another book about Amtrak, I wondered what he would say that had not been included in his book Derailed published in 1997. Turns out -- plenty. In "End of the Line," Vranich focuses almost exclusively on events since then, when Congress passed a law ordering Amtrak to reform. In reading it, the fresh material just keeps pouring out. He offers a documented chronological history of the trouble-prone Acela Express (which as of May 2005 are not running because of faulty brakes) and examines Amtrak's "fossilized" high-cost route structure. He outlines official findings that train ridership declined after September 11, 2001, instead of rising, as Amtrak had claimed. He takes an unprecedented look at rail security in light of the Madrid commuter train bombings, including fire safety hazards in the New York railroad tunnels that Amtrak has allowed to fester for years. In addressing public policy, he explains how Congress blocked a liquidation plan and in so doing helped obscure Amtrak's poor financial condition, which makes Amtrak the Enron and WorldCom of the railroad industry. His recommended solutions are based on how nations around the world are privatizing, devolving or contracting out their railroad services, all of which are contrary to preserving Amtrak's monopoly. In this work, long-time writer Vranich hits his stride. Highly recommended.

Vranich explains in simple language the many failures of the Amtrak system, some of those are Amtrak's fault alone while others have been put on it by Congress and other institutions. This book has statistics that show that while parts of the system are profitable there are vast expanses that consume any possible profits. There also examples of what could happen to the Amtrak system if it followed one of many paths that former nationalized rail systems have taken in Europe and Japan as well the take over short haul passenger trains by states unhappy with Amtrak's service. Overall an excellent read for those interested in why we don't have the great rail service that the rest of the world enjoys.

Joseph Vranich's latest book is a disappointment, continuing his predictable and repetitive criticism of Amtrak and intercity (long-distance) passenger trains. A large part of End of the Line is a regurgitation of factoids, suppositions and misrepresentations from Vranich's earlier book.

Amtrak has many, many legitimate problems -- quite a few of which are problems of their own making. Unfortunately, this author fails to address these issues in any meaningful way, instead seeming to focus on obscure, abnormal operational details when they can be used to support his preconceived viewpoint that Amtrak is one of the great social ills of America.

Readers are reminded on several occasions that Vranich was an employee of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (a pro-passenger train lobbying group) and later was employed by Amtrak in what was essentially a non policy-making, public relations capacity. These reminders were presumably included in an attempt to lend some credibility to Vranich's opinionated viewpoints. In typical fashion, the full story is not revealed -- Vranich held both positions for only brief periods of time during his career, and departed from both positions almost 25 to 30 years ago. Travel demands, Amtrak, and the entire railroad industry have changed drastically since the time Vranich worked for Amtrak.

This book is marginally useful as a catalog of the time-worn arguments that frequently appear in policy debates involving USA passenger trains. However, readers would be well advised to compare End of the Line commentary with more impartial, documented sources or primary source material. In many cases, a more complete review of facts will result in the reader taking a position contrary to the views espoused by Mr. Vranich.

The title of this book implies a meaningful discussion of the future of passenger trains in America, but the contents fail to deliver on that promise. Read the book at the library, or pick up a used copy from the bargain table of your local bookstore; for most readers, this book is a one-time read.

Reading a recent Wall Street Journal prompted me to post this review of what I thought to be and still think is a most timely and accuate book. Also, on reading the most recent, and critical review of Mr. Vranich's book on this site, I decided to put the Google to work and do a little research of my own...

You always know when you've read a stimulating book if you can later think of it when keeping up with new developments. Such is the case with End of the Line, whose author I'm starting to think is clairvoyant. The book argues that major reforms are necessary if the U.S. is to have passenger trains running on marketable routes instead of political pork-barrel little used routes. In so doing, he explains why Amtrak wouldn't exist much longer in many foreign nations where monopoly railroads, have been, or are being broken up.

Here's three things that have happened since the book's publication: First, socialist France will do away with the French National Railways (SNCF) and the old state-owned monopoly will now become a market-driven company. The Wall Street Journal reported last week (Nov. 20): "The European Union Commission has ruled that in 2010, all EU passenger rail routes will be opened up to competition through auctions of rights to private-sector railway companies." Get that? And France to boot! Just as nations throughout Asia, South America and Africa have privatized, franchised, contracted out or devolved their Amtrak-like railroads (a story Mr. Vranich tells so well), so now will EU nations. Second, the author tells how Congress's refusal to truly reform Amtrak is costly to U.S. taxpayers. A subsequent Bureau of Transportation Statistics report confirmed Amtrak loses money big-time. It found in an apples-to-apples comparison that the average subsidy to Amtrak was $186 per thousand passenger miles compared with $6 for airlines, while highway users actually ended up paying Washington nearly $2 per thousand passenger miles. Third, it turns out that Vranich actually understated Amtrak's financial deterioration. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report that disproportionately generous Amtrak subsidies will worsen as operating losses will increase by 40% in the next four years.

In short, new disclosures are reinforcing the book's credibility. And, End of the Line's focus on events since publication of his other Amtrak book ten years ago (with, by the way, virtually no material being repeated) means it offers a wealth of information not found elsewhere in one cohesive work. This is a serious and well annotated work. People interested in trains, the future of transportation or the federal government's reckless addiction to spending will find this book to be highly readable and highly accurate.

END OF THE LINE: THE FAILURE OF AMTRAK REFORM AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA'S PASSENGER TRAINS is a hard-hitting survey of an impending major failure: it comes from an Amtrak advocate-turned-critic who here offers evidence Amtrak should be replaced, as it's wasting taxpayer dollars. Exactly how that's happening, what's wrong with the system, and how to fix it is profiled in dozens of reports from numerous offices gathered to support Vranich's claims that Amtrak is a fiscal failure, operating a potentially disastrous system.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Around the time I finished reading this book, the liberal Washington Post published an editorial that was astonishing in that it reversed 34 years of editorial support for Amtrak subsidies. The paper is now like this author, I thought, who supported Amtrak for more than 20 years and changed his position, too. The Post's opening line said that "Trains cost taxpayers too much. Every 10,000 miles that a train passenger traveled in 2002 cost federal taxpayers $200 in subsidies, compared with $6 for passenger jets and $4 for long-distance buses" (see the May 3, 2005 edition.) That theme of excessive subsidies for relatively few travelers also is reflected in "End of the Line." A big difference between the newspaper and book, however, is that the editorial lacks endnotes while the book has more than 600 (and still remains highly readable). Some university ought to give this author an honorary Ph.D. for his research into and factual substantiation of Amtrak's many failings and proposed non-Amtrak alternatives and solutions.

This book is remarkable because it does more than examine an ineffective railroad -- it's about a federal government that has lost its way. Every tax dollar spent on Amtrak is a dollar taken away from more urgent public responsibilities. Example: Congress recently cut $500 million out of Homeland Security funding despite the fact that the federal government's first responsibility under the constitution is the protection of its people. We need public officials to stop taking money away from critical needs and diverting it to wasteful programs like Amtrak. For those who want to see government spending conducted in a responsible fashion, this book performs a major public service.