Safety and Liability by Ned Einstein COVID-19, Shenanigans and Liability Part 2: Making Money by Compromising Health
Amtrak, the heavily-subsidized enemy of the motorcoach industry, is now outdoing its airline industry colleagues. As a quasigovernment monopoly, the taxpayers will effectively cover the damages if problems develop. That Amtrak may not even belong in most parts of the country is only a footnote.
This feat was accomplished by eliminating trains and reducing ticket prices. The latest development was disclosed formidably in the October 14, 2020 issue of Mass Transit, re-characterizing a story from The Times Union in Albany, New York. Amtrak’s activities were actually presented as great news: Mass Transit titled its article: “NY: With cutbacks, some Amtrak trains now sold out.” The fact that this feat was accomplished by eliminating trains and reducing ticket prices for those which remained is only part of the story. It was also less of the story, and even less of the truth and its implications.
The irony is that Amtrak was actually “on the verge of posting its first operating profit” just before the pandemic struck. When COVID-19 struck, boardings sank by 95 percent. It is hard to understand how “social distancing . . . also reduced the availability of seats.” Regardless, Amtrak made up for only every 20th seat being occupied by quickly filling all of them. Equally mysterious is how this nearly break-even, preCOVID-19 monopoly is also managing to ask the taxpayers “for additional support after exhausting the proceeds of an earlier stimulus package.” This statement was curiously qualified by the phrase, “so far without success.”
Expect no clues from Amtrak. According to its president, “By combining our enhanced safety efforts with the guidance of our full-time medical director and public 28 • National Bus Trader / January, 2021
health and safety teams who are working in partnership with experts from the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, we want to ensure our customers feel a renewed sense of confidence when they travel with us this holiday season." Time to excise my Master’s Degree from GWU from my resume. Otherwise, at least Amtrak did not pin its justification on medial experts. Another Amtrak spokesperson clarified the railroad’s success with a simple math-level explanation, stating that, “the reduction in frequencies likely created the sold out situation.” Well, “D’uh.” As if Amtrak was not already increasing passenger risk at a time when COVID-19 infections were spiking in nearly 40 states, a spokesperson offered that, “We are using this ridership data to determine future consist planning for the upcoming holiday periods as well as early 2021.” He further explained that the railroad is moving cautiously to conserve cash, noting that, “Adding equipment adds costs and we are conserving funds.” Well, “D’uh redux.”
The Old Airlines Snookeroo With no evidence to really deprive Amtrak of its creativity, consolidating service is an old airline trick, about which I have written before in NATIONAL BUS TRADER (see “Drivers v. Robots, Part 2: The Nature of Modern Travel,” October, 2019). Faced with three flights two-thirds full, U.S. airlines have, for decades, taken one of these three planes out of service and re-assigned its passengers to the other two flights – stranding confirmed passengers for hours or days.
When COVID-19 struck, after the airlines received their first stimulus bonanza (months before flight attendants even began wearing masks), they doubleddown on COVID-19 by, once again, eliminating flights and consolidating passengers into those flights they retained. Recently induced onto one flight by an extra charge which promised me the seat of my choice, I found out the day before that I had been assigned to one. Upon boarding, I found the entire rear of the plane packed (seat selection by robot) with the entire front of the plane empty. Threatening to ground the plane with a single phone call, I was instantly granted permission to sit up front. On my return flight, the entire passenger compartment was packed, with few middle seats vacant.
In its efforts to possibly surpass its nearprofit status, Amtrak’s sleight-of-hand was described by noting that, “Amtrak's move this month to cut train frequencies, and costs, in the wake of the pandemic has left accommodations on some long-distance trains sold out.” “D’uh” yet again. Betting with taxpayers’ money, of course Amtrak achieved this health threat effortlessly.
Of course, Amtrak has not yet exhausted its unchecked bag of tricks: • Those passengers who toss baby carriages and bicycles in the wheelchair securement areas could pay extra for the space. Then some of it could be used by wheelchair users induced to ride at half price by the ADA – if Amtrak complied with its regulations. • Parents could be allowed to ride with their children on their laps, at perhaps onequarter the fares per child. • Amtrak could install horizonal stanchions, and increase the loads, the profits and the COVID. Often trains in the Northeast corridor are packed for only short segments. (I myself have done this occasionally, without any stanchions, especially during the holiday season Amtrak appears to be coveting.) • For its profits to really soar, Amtrak could pull out most of its branch lines in the boondocks and turn them over to motorcoaches, which would require a tiny fraction of the subsidies to operate, and greatly improve coverage. Of course, this is a naive dream in a nation whose political leaders crave a nationwide passenger rail system.
Otherwise, overstuffing the trains is already a reality, and the direction in which the railroad is clearly headed. There is no reason such a practice cannot continue or expand if and when COVID-19 ever disappears from the U.S. landscape. In the meantime, that is clearly not Amtrak’s problem or responsibility. As an interstate provider operating across the country, Amtrak is our most effective super-spreader. There should at least be some kind of prize for accelerating our much-heralded herd immunity – perhaps more stimulus money. Otherwise, as Amtrak is an intercity creature, supported and governed by national politics and regulations, no enlightened governor can stop it. Social Distancing and Social Concern It is worth mentioning that, over the past several decades, the motorcoach industry
