![\"BlobServer\"](\"https:\/\/i4tsk12in2b2y7uts14c528g-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/BlobServer1-300x209.jpg\")
<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\nAmtrak’s mission is to deliver intercity transportation with superior safety, customer service and financial excellence. Amtrak operates a nationwide rail network, serving more than 500 destinations in 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian provinces on more than 21,300 miles of routes, with more than 20,000 employees. Last year Amtrak recorded $3.2 billion in revenue and while incurring $4.3 billion in expenses.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n According to AMTRAK\u2019s Business Plan published in 2013, the company prioritized 5 goals:[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Goal 1 \u2013 Safety and Security:<\/strong><\/p>\n Become North America\u2019s safest, most secure railroad by creating a collaborative, team-oriented workplace culture that minimizes risks and maximizes passenger and employee safety.<\/span><\/p>\n Goal 2 \u2013 Customer Focus: <\/strong><\/p>\n Advance customer service quality by responding to the wants, needs and expectations of our customers in order to improve their experience and maximize passenger and partner satisfaction.<\/p>\n Goal 3 \u2013 Mobility and Connectivity: <\/strong><\/p>\n Improve national mobility and connectivity by growing Amtrak\u2019s business through new partnerships, routes and frequencies to increase ridership system wide.<\/p>\n Goal 4 \u2013 Environment and Energy: <\/strong><\/p>\n Contribute to the nation\u2019s environmental health by attracting automobile and air travelers to trains, while improving Amtrak\u2019s efficiency and reducing transportation related carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption.<\/p>\n Goal 5 \u2013 Financial and Organizational Excellence<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Attain a standard of organizational excellence by aligning our products, services, processes and culture with stakeholder expectations to improve financial performance and overall business results.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Operating Model<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Beholden to Government Whims<\/strong><\/p>\n Unfortunately for Amtrak, despite these logical business goals, its operations are still dictated by a very fickle and confused Congress. Amtrak is reliant on Federal Subsidies greater than $1 Billion annually.\u00a0 Efforts over the past decade to secure this funding through multi-year legislative allocations have repeatedly failed; forcing Amtrak officials to plead their case annually before a highly politicized legislature.\u00a0 The inevitable outcome is an inability for multi-year planning and an inability to secure the proper funding for the investments necessary to make Amtrak competitive with existing forms of inter city transportation.<\/p>\n Inability to invest<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Inability to divest unprofitable operations<\/strong><\/p>\n Amtrak\u2019s operating problems are further complicated by a Legislative Requirement to maintain long distance intercity rail lines that are perennially unprofitable.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Amtrak officially are continuously berated by Congress for their inability to generate a profit, while ignoring that the continued reauthorization of the Passenger Rail Act, with its declaration that \u201clong distance passenger rail is a vital and necessary part of our national transportation system and economy,\u201d is the proximate cause for a majority of the operating expenses.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 In the most glaring example of Congressional ineptitude regarding Amtrak\u2019s operations, members of Congress floated the idea of privatizing the\u00a0Northeast Corridor of Amtrak.\u00a0 This line, running from Washington, DC to Boston, and including the only high speed rail in America, is often the only profitable line for Amtrak.\u00a0 When pressed, the backers of the plan identified that private investors were willing to raise private capital to make the necessary infrastructure investments to keep the line operational.\u00a0 What they failed to address is how that plan would benefit the remainder of Amtrak which would then struggle even more to match revenues to the growing costs of running the remaining long distance passenger transit lines that Congress continued to mandate.[6]<\/a> <\/p>\n Lessons:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n If the process for securing funding for Amtrak continues to be a contentious and annual process the enterprise will continue to fail.\u00a0 Despite the $1.5 Billion it will receive from tax payers this year, Amtrak is simply securing the minimum amount required to remain solvent, removing any possibility of making the investments required to remain a viable option for intercity transportation in the United States.<\/p>\n Compounding this problem is the fact that Amtrak is still beholden to an outdated federal mandate to operate inefficient and unpopular long distance routes.\u00a0 Congress should reevaluate the stance and determine if it is indeed integral to the national economy.\u00a0 If it does find that the long distance routes need to be maintained, the fa\u00e7ade of Amtrak remaining a semi-private venture should be removed, subsidies should be increased, and the railroad network should become part of the nationally funded infrastructure.\u00a0 If not, Amtrak should be entrusted to divest unprofitable lines and prioritize capital expenditure towards the routes that are profitable or can be in the immediate future.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>Notes:<\/p>\n [1] Amtrak Website<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Amtrak FY13 Budget Comprehensive Business Plan<\/a><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> International Business Times<\/em>. \u201cAmtrak\u2019s Failure to Gain Wireless Spectrum Rights Stymied Safety Technology\u201d<\/a> May 15, 2015.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> The Brookings Institute. <\/em>“New Amtrak Bill Still Means the Same Old Funding Debate”<\/a> September 16, 2014.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Amtrak News Release.<\/em> \u201cLONG DISTANCE TRAINS ARE FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITY\u201d<\/a> May 21, 2013.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Washington Post.<\/em> \u201cHouse GOP proposal would privatize high-speed rail along Amtrak\u2019s Northeast Corridor\u201d<\/a> May 26, 2011.<\/p>\n General Sources:<\/p>\n Amtrak is the government subsidized and sole National Passenger Railroad Operator in the United States.\u00a0 Through outdated requirements and the inability to secure funding for long term investments, Amtrak has accumulated annual losses of greater than $1 Billion every year since its inception.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1192,"featured_media":5012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[532,640,164],"class_list":["post-3780","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amtrak","category-government","category-transportation"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/the-tom-challenge-tom-winners-and-losers-assignment\/","yoast_head":"\n![\"Crash\"](\"https:\/\/i4tsk12in2b2y7uts14c528g-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Crash-300x170.jpg\")
<\/a>One glaring example of this failure to properly invest in necessary technologies was seen in the May 15th<\/sup>, 2015 derailment of a Northeast Regional Train in Philadelphia.\u00a0 Subsequent investigations found this deadly incident was caused by operator error.\u00a0 The conductor failed to slow the train to the prescribed speed for a curve, resulting in multiple cars coming off the tracks.\u00a0 Amplifying the apparent failures that led to this disaster, was the fact that the technology to prevent it had already existed, however Amtrak had failed to fully implement it due to funding and technical issues.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Acela\"](\"https:\/\/i4tsk12in2b2y7uts14c528g-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Acela-300x231.jpg\")
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