Another Gas Tax Increase?

This week marks the 30^th anniversary of the Mianus River Bridge collapse, which killed three people.  That accident on I-95 in Greenwich was attributed to years of neglected inspections and maintenance, the inevitable result of penny-pinching in Hartford.

Will the recent Metro-North crash (which injured 76 passengers) also be tied to long-postponed repairs?

Last week, the CDOT’s Commissioner testified before US Senator Blumenthal that Connecticut has spent $3.2 billion in the last decade on the New Haven rail line, while Amtrak spent just $64 million.  And all that spending still couldn’t prevent the May 17 derailment.

But Commissioner James Redeker also said there’s another $4.5 billion needed to bring the line into a “state of good repair” in the short term.  That includes work on the catenary and replacement of four movable bridges, some of them 100+ years old.  Layer on top of this $130 million to meet the federal mandate for PTC (Positive Train Control), and you can see the problem.

Where’s the money to come from? 

Well, it will come from you and me.  On July 1^st we will all start paying an additional 4 cents per gallon for gasoline, tax money that will go into the Special Transportation Fund (STF), supposedly to be spent on rails and roads.

But remember that it was Governor Malloy who (again) balanced this year’s state budget by raiding $110 million from that STF, something that, as a candidate, he swore he would never do.  Voters will decide if that makes Malloy a hypocrite… or just a pragmatist.  Either way, future Governors won’t be able to do it again as the legislature has voted to put the STF into an untouchable “lock box” starting in 2015, after the next election.

Over the past decade various lawmakers and Governors have stolen a billion dollars from the STF.  So not only are we about $4.5 billion short on needed funds for rail repairs, but the STF has been treated like a petty cash box and drained it at will.

How sad it is when we have to balance our state’s budget by taking money targeted for keeping our rails and highways safe… not to mention starting a state-wide Keno game, basically a “tax” on those ignorant enough to play it (with odds of about 9 million to one of winning the jackpot).

Kudos to Senator Blumenthal for pushing safety as a top priority.  Maybe he can also get Amtrak to start paying its fair share for running trains over our (state-owned and maintained) tracks.

But it’s not just our rails that are in bad shape.  This week the group Transportation for America released its annual report on the deterioration of US highway bridges:  one in nine of those bridges is structurally deficient and in need of repair or replacement.  In Connecticut, that number has grown, not declined, since last year.

Yet, our DOT is still moving forward with a half-billion dollar rebuild of the structurally sound Waterbury “mix-master” where Route 8 crosses I-84.  Why?

So, next time you’re filling your tank with the priciest gasoline in the Northeast, pick-up a Keno ticket.  You might have a better chance of winning there than ever seeing your taxes spent on improving transportation safety.

Metro-North In Crisis?

“Is it safe to ride Metro-North?”   I’ve been asked that question by reporters and commuters alike dozens of times in recent weeks.  My answer in a moment, after some background.

Days ago the NTSB released its initial report on the cause of the May 17^th derailment and subsequent collision of two trains, a report that seemed to fault the railroad, not just our aging tracks.  The federal safety agency says that just two days before the accident, a Metro-North inspection identified a problem at the site of the derailment:  an insulated joint connecting two sections of track that had insufficient ballast (the large gravel supporting the ties).  As trains rolled over the joint, the track moved up and down, straining the joint.

Metro-North admits its track crews found the problem but says that they didn’t think it serious enough to close the track or issue a “slow order”.  The question is, why?  Shouldn’t the railroad always err on the side of safety?  Was the weak spot slated for repairs?  If so, when?

Days later, another tragedy:  a Metro-North track worker was struck by an oncoming train near West Haven.  This accident seems to have been caused by human error:  a rookie in traffic control reportedly cleared signals for the work area, sending the train at full speed into the area workers thought was shut to traffic.  Metro-North President Howard Permut called the accident “the worst… in Metro-North’s history.”

Metro-North worker and managers are not stupid.  They are highly trained and want to run a world class railroad that’s safe and on-time.  But they are only human and are under tremendous pressure, exacerbated by a serious loss of experienced staff.

Since the first of the year, 34 managers have retired including the senior vice president of operations, the senior construction engineer, the chief training officer and assistant director of track projects.  Many engineers, conductors and track workers have also retired, because after 30 years on the job they are eligible to leave with full pension benefits.

"Right now, this is a tinderbox," Anthony Bottalico, general chairman of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees (ACRE) told The NY Daily News.  

"The loss of thousands of years of experience is something we have all warned about for years," Bottalico said in a letter to Permut. " Our employees and managers tell me they see a railroad in dysfunction, a railroad more concerned with budgets and long meetings and (with) no attention to actual management of the operations."

According to a report in the NY Post, the Federal Transit Administration is so concerned they have twice warned Metro-North’s parent, the MTA, they need to bring in experienced managers for mega-projects like the Second Avenue subway.  Morale is down even among remaining managers who haven’t seen a pay hike in years.

The railroad knew this was coming.  But has it done enough to promote from within or bring in fresh talent from other railroads.  And who wants to go from being an engineer (earning up to $175,000) into management and take a pay cut?

Even with new hires, there are problems.  Chris Silvera, the head of the track workers union told Newsday: "We are a very young workforce, a very inexperienced workforce. We're used to having people with 15, 16 years of experience doing these jobs. We're not able to do that anymore. When you've got all rookies on the team you have to have leadership."

So, is it safe to ride Metro-North?  Yes, I think it is… and I do.

Since these two accidents, vigilance has been redoubled.  I’m sure everyone on the railroad is thinking “safety” first and foremost, as they should.

So the next time your train is delayed a few minutes or seems to be running slow, don’t complain.  It’s probably for a good reason… keeping you, your fellow passengers and the folks that work 24 x 7 to run the busiest commuter railroad in the US safe!

Lessons Learned ?

The recent derailment and collision of two Metro-North trains in Fairfield left dozens injured, tens of thousands inconvenienced and taxpayers footing the bill for millions of dollars in repairs.  It also proved just how fragile our rail network is, as this accident severed the crucial Northeast Corridor connecting Boston and Washington. What lessons can we learn from the incident?

Early indications are the derailment was caused by faulty track repairs.  But this incident is tied to the larger overall problem facing not only the CT Dept of Transportation but our entire nation:  deferred maintenance.

Our CDOT Commissioner James Redeker, a very talented man of highest professional integrity, has been warning us for years that we have worn-out roads, bridges and rails needing repairs or replacement.   But the Commissioner also claims, correctly, that he doesn’t get enough money from the legislature to do what’s needed.  Metro-North President Howard Permut has said the same thing, pretty gutsy for a state vendor, which is what Metro-North is.

It took the collapse of the Mianus River Bridge 30 years ago to finally get attention to the under-investment by the state in bridge inspections and repairs.  And to this day, 35% of the CDOT’s annual budget pays off bonds issued after that tragedy to get the deferred maintenance back up to speed.

So, in a state that seems to lurch from crisis to crisis before things change, I’d predict we’ll end up asking our grandchildren to pay the bonds we will now issue for repair work to get our rail infrastructure back up to “a state of good repair”.

Investing in mass transit can be sexy.  Just look at our M8 cars.  Every commuter I know loves them and sees them as proof that Hartford cares about commuters.  But as they look out their train window on the way to work, do passengers have any sense of how old the rails or catenary (overhead power) wires are?  Some are 100 years old!

Amtrak owns, operates and maintains the entire Northeast Corridor from Washington DC to Boston, all except for the section in Connecticut from the NY State line to New Haven.  That track is owned by Connecticut and maintained for us by Metro-North.  Connecticut pays 65% of the cost, the MTA (parent to Metro-North) pays 35%.  Amtrak and the Federal government kicks in a little money, but clearly not enough.

Ride on Amtrak in Rhode Island or New Jersey and your Acela will hurtle along at 140 mph.  In Connecticut, America’s fastest train runs no faster than Metro-North, about 70 mph.  Our roadbed, bridges and signal system can’t support higher speeds.

It’s probably a good thing Connecticut owns this right-of-way, giving us the authority to prioritize our commuter trains (carrying 1000 passengers apiece) over Acelas (carrying 300).  But that ownership comes at a high cost that we have not been paying:  spending on non-sexy things like replacing tracks and ties.

If we want to run a safe, reliable railroad we must pay to maintain it.  Perhaps the biggest lesson of the Metro-North accident is to re-prioritize our spending on infrastructure.  Not sexy, but very important.

Update on High-Speed Rail Around the World

Time for a quick update on the good and not-so good news about high-speed rail around the world:

CHINA:         The high-speed train between Beijing and Shanghai just passed the 100 million passenger ridership mark after less than 2 years of operations.  The sleek trains depart every 15 minutes carrying 1,000+ passengers at 200+ mph, covering the 819 mile distance (comparable to NYC – Atlanta) in 4 hours.

China also recently opened a new 1,400 mile long high speed line from Beijing to Guangzhou (comparable to NYC to Key West FL).  Travel time, 8 hours.  That puts high speed rail just 100 miles from Hong Kong.

U.S.A.:         America’s fastest train, Acela, while a tinker toy compared to true high-speed rail in China and Europe, is becoming a victim of its own success.  Acela has captured over 50% of the NY to DC and NY to Boston market with hourly departures but an average speed of only 75 mph.  Trains are sold out (with 3.4 million passengers a year) and, at least on paper, highly profitable.  But when Amtrak looked at adding an extra car to each train to capitalize on this popularity, they concluded it would be too expensive.  

But Amtrak has been experimenting with increasing Acela’s speed from 125 to 160 mph on a few stretches of track in NJ and RI.  Some $450 million in work will be needed but the hope is the faster speeds could be achieved by 2017.  Today Acela accounts for a quarter of all Amtrak revenues nationwide.

FRANCE:     If it worked for the airlines, why not high speed rail?  France’s government run railroad is about to launch a no-frills, discounted subsidiary branded “OuiGo”.  Using rebuilt double-decker TGV equipment, the trains will be super cheap but with few amenities (think Southwest Airlines on rails).  All ticketing will be online.  Extra bags will cost you $8 in advance, $65 if you wait til the last minute.  There are no café or bar cars on the trains.     

A seat near an electric outlet is extra.  You have to arrive 30 min before departure, and OuiGo only uses suburban, not downtown, stations (appealing to the car-centric suburbanites near Paris).  But for a little hassle, you can get to Marseille (on the Mediterranean) in three hours for as little as $13.

NETHERLANDS – BELGIUM:     Not all high-speed rail in Europe is a smashing success.  Witness “Frya”, the private rail service between Brussels and The Netherlands (in planning since 2004) that was to cut travel time by one-third using sleek new V250 trains (ironically named “The Albatross”) built in Italy.  While lowest bidder Ansaldo Breda had a great track record building trams and commuter trains, when their V250 finally ran this Winter, ice build-up began ripping plates from beneath the trains.  (See… Metro-North isn’t the only railroad with equipment problems in the Winter!).  The V250 cars were declared unsafe and taken out of service while the lawyers go at it.

Cruise Ships: Devils on the Deep Blue Sea

In the eight years I’ve been writing this column I’ve never found a reason to write about cruise ships, one of my favorite ways to travel.

Since my Dad took me as a passenger on freighters through the Caribbean when I was a kid right up to our now-annual cruises to the same area, I’ve always loved the high seas.  There’s nothing easier than driving to the pier in NYC, hopping on board and kicking back for a week.

A few years ago my fascination with cruising brought me to a great book, “Devils on the Deep Blue Sea” by Kristoffer Garin which detailed the formative years of the cruise industry, especially the start-up of Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972.  It was a rough start, but today Carnival owns ten cruise lines (almost half the cruise ships in the world) including Cunard, Holland America, Costa, P&O, Princess and Seabourn.  At one point they even had their own airline ferrying passengers to Miami and San Juan, their biggest embarkation ports.

By segmenting the cruise market, just as hotels do, they offer everything from singles-filled party cruises to upscale trans-Atlantic “crossings” on the Queen Mary 2 (which is where I was while reading Garin’s book in 2006). 

But more recently Carnival’s had some very bad PR.  

Last year it was crash of the Costa Concordia in Italy (whose

Costa Concordia

Captain abandoned ship).  Then, the February stranding of the 4,000-person “Triumph” for days in the Gulf of Mexico (without power, food or sanitation) was just the latest in a series of engineering problems.  Last week another ship, Fascination, failed a CDC health inspection, the fourth of their ships to do so this year alone.

Last week demand for cabins was so low that Carnival was offering cruises for $38 a night per person… less than the cost at Motel 6.  And that price includes all meals (assuming those CDC inspections don’t hurt your appetite).

Admittedly, this is a weak time of year for cruising, but Carnival knows it’s always best to sail with a full ship and make money on the booze and ship excursions.

In my view, the real problem isn’t Carnival or its ships’ safety, but the fact that they pay no taxes… and yet, depend on the US Coast Guard for their numerous rescues.

Micky Arison, son of the founder of Carnival (and owner of the Miami Heat), is the richest man in Florida.  Last year Carnival brought in $15.3 billion in revenues.  But they paid just 0.6% in US, state, local and international taxes last year while socking taxpayers for millions in US Coast Guard expenses for 90 different rescue missions in the last five years.

Senator Jay Rockefeller says Arison is a “cheater… treacherous and wrong” and wrote him asking to do the right thing and pay-up.  Carnival declined the invitation, prompting Rockefeller (the Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee) to call their response “shameful”.

Shameful, perhaps.  But perfectly legal and the result, even Rockefeller admits, of sloppiness by Congress.  So, expect some grandstanding, a few hearings and maybe some face-saving philanthropy by Arison.  But don’t expect many changes in the cruise industry, especially in higher fares that reflect the true cost of being a “devil on the deep blue seas”.

TSA Agents: The Toughest Job in Transportation

Who do you think has the toughest job in transportation?  Airline pilots?  Long-haul truck drivers?  Metro-North conductors?    To my thinking, the toughest job is being an airport TSA agent.

Forget the recent furor over revised Transportation Security Administration rules soon to allow small knives in carry-on luggage.  The plastic knives the flight attendants distribute in snack packs in-flight are already sharp enough to slit a throat.  By not worrying about every pen-knife and nail clipper, TSA agents should have more time to concentrate on truly lethal weapons.

A far bigger threat to aviation security is liquid explosives and non-metal knives.  Ceramic knives are undetectable on magnetometers, which is why the TSA brought in those full-body scanners we love so much. 

But I think the biggest threat to aviation safety is the public’s anger at the TSA agents who are just doing their job.  After a thorough TSA screening at an airport last month I saw an angry passenger literally curse at the agent.  That passenger wasn’t pulled aside and given a retaliatory body cavity search. To her credit the agent kept her cool and didn’t get into even a verbal fight.  Could you be so thick-skinned?

It’s been 12 years since 9/11.  Have we forgotten what can happen when determined, armed terrorists take over a plane?  The TSA screens 1.8 million passengers a day.  If just one of those fliers got an undetected weapon onto a plane and blew it up, imagine the uproar.

Remember the holy triad of service:  fast, good and cheap.  You can achieve any two of those, but not all three.  Clearly, the top priority is “good” security.  So in this age of sequestration we’re unlikely to see quality compromised for speed.

If you want to fly, put up and shut up:  put up with the long lines while the agents do their jobs properly to keep you safe and keep your mouth shut.

Passenger protests have brought some TSA screening changes which seem arbitrary.  Like the recent rule allowing passengers over age 75 to keep their shoes on.  Terrorists can’t be that old?

And what passes for the rare TSA inspection of Amtrak passengers is more for show than real security. Unless every bag is opened, the rare and random briefcase examination or quick dog-walk through a moving train seems to be just “showing the colors”.

What do all these TSA inspections do, aside from create long lines and frustrated fliers?  They turn up an amazing amount of weapons.  The TSA’s weekly blog makes for fascinating reading.

In one recent week alone the TSA intercepted 32 firearms, 27 of them loaded, and ten stun guns. There were clips of ammo, brass knuckles and (no surprise) sheer stupidity:  a passenger flying out of San Juan told the ticket agent that her bag contained a bomb and she was going to blow up the plane. After an inspection by the TSA, her bag didn’t have a bomb. But as a result of her threat, the ticket counter, checkpoint and terminal were closed for nearly an hour, inconveniencing thousands.

And there were, as the TSA blog put it, “consequences” for the flier.

Gov Malloy wants to kill off the Metro-North Commuter Council

Shortly after he came to office, I wrote something critical of newly elected Governor Malloy.  Nothing new there.  I’d certainly questioned Republican governors in years past, usually to little response.  But this time the reaction was different.

A Malloy confidant, a senior State Senator from Fairfield County, took me aside and threatened me.  Not physically, but legislatively.  “You know, we could eliminate the Commuter Rail Council if you keep this up,” he said in Machiavellian tones.  “Bring it on,” I said, half-shocked at this political threat.

Well, it took a couple of years (and more criticism), but the threat has come true.  The Governor has submitted a bill (HB 6363) that would wipe out the existing Metro-North Commuter Rail Council and its 15 members.  In its place, a new Council would be appointed and the Governor, not the members of the Council, would choose its Chairman.

Further, the new Commuter Council’s mandate would turn from investigation and advocacy on behalf of fellow commuters to a PR advisor to the CDOT.  While the current Council has the power to request information and is required to receive cooperation from any state or local agency, that power would be eliminated under Malloy’s bill.

The Commuter Council isn’t the only pro-transportation group affected by the bill.  The CT Public Transportation Commission would also be eliminated just as last year Malloy erased the  Transportation Strategy Board.

This obvious power-grab by the Governor has so far gone unchallenged in the legislature, buried in a 66-page Christmas tree of a bill.  If it becomes law, my 15+ years as a member of the Commuter Council (the last four as its Chairman) will be history.

But why is the Metro-North Commuter Council singled out for such harsh treatment?

It’s not that the Commuter Council has been wasting state money.  We operate on a budget of zero dollars, even dipping into our own pockets to pay for design of a logo and pay for postage.  And I don’t think it can be argued that we haven’t been doing our jobs… meeting monthly with Metro-North and the CDOT to address commuter complaints and push for ever better service.

No, I think the real problem is that we’ve done our job too well, calling out CDOT, the legislature and yes, even the Governor, when they did things that we felt screwed commuters.  That’s our mandate.

I guess Governor Malloy didn’t like it when we pointed out that as a gubernatorial candidate he promised to never raid the Special Transportation Fund to balance the state’s budget, but then did just that when he took office.  And I guess he wasn’t happy when I noted that his budget took new fare increases from Metro-North riders but didn’t spend the money on trains, in effect making the fare hike a “commuter tax”.

And I’d imagine the Commissioner of the CDOT… the fifth Commissioner in my 15+ years on the Council… would be happy to see the current Council gone, critical as we have been about their Stamford Garage project which we see as selling out the interests of commuters to private developers.

It’s sad that the Governor feels the way to answer legitimate criticism is to eviscerate those who question him.  But I can promise you that his proposed elimination of the Metro-North Commuter Council won’t silence me.  Bring it on, Governor.