I am pleased to see this:

According to Rip the MofW guy, the patronage of various passenger rail systems throughout the country posted increases from 2004 to 2005. The first part of Rip's data covers---I assume---"heavy rail" (i.e. things we think of as traditional trains) as opposed to "light rail", which is usually trolleys, trams, and the like.

The figures he has show gains in the three Amtrak California services, with a nearly double digit gain in one of them. Of course, Trains magazine has said in the past that the State of California and her citizens have made deliberate policy choices that improved service and attracted riders, so it is not necessarily unexpected to see growth in California passenger operations. At the same time, it's not unwelcome, either. The more people that get used to taking trains, the better, because that may allow policy-makers to do something other than "add another HOV lane". Hopefully such thinking will spread to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hint hint, Interstate 81.

He also points out excellent growth in "transit" patronage in various urban markets. I don't know exactly what "transit" means---it is a term of art---so I'll have to reserve commentary on this. I further suggest that you go to his site and read the entire post for what appears to be a majority of good results.

It is also pleasing to see that Metro-North posts increases. They incorporate part of the old New Haven Railroad, and everyone in the East should love the New Haven.

Also worth noting are data from Amtrak, courtesy of the February 2006 issue of Trains. The specifics are rather detailed and I don't have a single figure for how many percent of increase there was, but Amtrak did post a record patronage figure for the third year in a row. For the fiscal year ending 30 September 2005, Amtrak hauled 25,374,998 passengers to points all over the country, from the Northeast Corridor to the route of the California Zephyr.

This, even while certain political figures in Washington, D.C. try to zero in on the final annihilation of the alternate to Southwest Airlines known as Amtrak. (With apologies to Glen A. Larson.)

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Y'all thought your correspondent might have overlooked a very important anniversary that happened today. No, it's not my birthday, but it is a birthday nonetheless.

01 FEBRUARY 1968 - The Penn Central Transportation Company is born from the merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central System.

This was not a merger that created new efficiencies, improved service, cut costs, or took advantage of synergies between the two (and later three) railroads that comprised it. Rather, it was a last ditch effort undertaken by two ancient rival corporations whose economic fortunes had turned bad and were headed towards worse at Run 8 speeds.

The two main leaders of the new company, Stuart T. Saunders from the PRR and Alfred E. Perlman of the NYCS, didn't get along. The railroads didn't have a lot of good connections between their separate lines. But wait, there's more:

The bankrupt and hapless New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad successfully sued for inclusion into the merger, and became a part of the Penn Central system on 01 January 1969. Where there had been two ailing railroads floundering towards a hoped-and-prayed-for success, there were now three.

Deteriorated physical plants, hopeless administrative snarls, questionable diversifications, a weak economy, lethargic-if-not-lethal Federal regulations and even hostile weather combined to form a lethal cocktail that would send the giant railroad into bankruptcy on 21 June 1970, a mere 872 days after its creation.

This bankruptcy was the largest in American history at that point, with the Penn Central losing in the neighborhood of a million dollars (in 1970s value) per day for at least a year, with previous daily losses being in the neighborhood of $300,000 to $500,000.

It is a vast and complicated story to tell, and I don't understand all of it. For you, the reader, know that the death of the Penn Central gave us Amtrak, Conrail, railroad deregulation, and the vast array of commuter agencies that line the Northeast Corridor to this day. For a variety of reasons, the Penn Central Transportation Company is my favorite fallen flag---I stubbornly refuse to admit that the flag of the N&W has fallen---and I celebrate the anniversary of its birth.

Too bad I never got to ride the Twenty Cent Broad.

If you're interested in the Penn Central, I invite you to visit two of my favorite PC websites:

Penn Central Railroad Online
Penn Central Railroad Historical Society

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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