If the new Amtrak management team is sincerely trying to improve safety, we ought to all support what they are doing. But if Amtrak is only using safety as a stalking horse to pursue another agenda (such as discontinuing L-D trains, as is believed in many circles), it should be called out on it.
Richard Anderson, Amtrak’s new President and CEO, has been bringing a “business approach” to intercity rail passenger service. Although the Northeast Corridor (NEC) has huge capital costs, Amtrak’s services in the NEC at least produce a positive operating cash flow, and state-supported services elsewhere at least break even. Anderson has correctly identified the long-distance passenger train network as a source of unfunded operating losses.
The NTSB analysis of the 2016 Amtrak backhoe accident on the Northeast Corridor at Chester, Pa., that killed two m/w workers and injured 39 has missed the mark. This incident is by no means the first of its kind.
