Not the time to experiment with Virginia commuter rail service
CLEVELAND, November 2 — On October 16, the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) Operations Board voted to recommend awarding a five-year, $85.7 million contract to Keolis, the U.S. subsidiary of a French company that is based in Paris. The VRE would be the first U.S. operation by Keolis, which would replace Amtrak as the operator of the commuter rail service.
The recommendation will now be taken up by the appropriate governmental bodies. On November 5, the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission will vote on this recommendation and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission make its decision the following day.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen strongly urges both Transportation Commissions to reject the Operations Board’s recommendation and vote, instead, to award the VRE operations contract to Amtrak for another five-year period.
For most of the past decade, the nation’s passenger railroad was forced to deal with an avowed opponent of federally-funded passenger rail service in the White House. On more than one occasion the previous Administration attempted to eliminate all funding for Amtrak, and the railroad’s Board of Directors frequently was populated with individuals whose philosophies on Amtrak ran from apathetic to antagonistic. Indeed, it would have been a miracle if Amtrak had been responsive to VRE riders during this period, because it was generally unresponsive to nearly all passenger rail travelers outside the Northeast Corridor and to its own workforce.
However, the national elections last year strongly reversed the tide in the Nation’s capital. Amtrak now is led by someone with vast rail and transportation experience, who is respected by every passenger rail stakeholder group, including Rail Labor. Moreover, the Obama Administration has made a long overdue commitment to high-speed passenger rail in America, with Amtrak as the centerpiece.
To be sure, the federal government’s authorization of billions of dollars in funding for high-speed passenger rail will attract many newcomers, both foreign and domestic. In fact, the most aggressive newcomers will look for opportunities for a “loss leader” — a small operation that can be severely underbid in an effort to obtain a toehold in the passenger rail market, with the payout coming down the road when the new projects move from the drawing board to the right of way.
Experimentation in a safety-critical environment like commuter rail can produce tragic consequences. Amtrak is a known quantity, and improvements in its safety record speak for themselves. Keolis, on the other hand, has no experience operating commuter rail service in the U.S.
The VRE Operations Board is swimming against the tide by recommending that Amtrak be dumped in favor of a yet unproven entity. We strongly urge the Potomac and Rappahannock, and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commissions to reject the Board’s recommendation and to keep VRE commuters on the fast track that Amtrak offers.
Monday, November 02, 2009
bentley@ble.org
