| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-10-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 258 pages | | Height: | 10.0 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 20.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
Free of his ties to the railroad industry today, Joseph Vranich, who worked to create Amtrak, candidly reviews its troubled history, its loss of market share, and its inability to provide better and faster service. 20 photos.
Joseph Vranich, who worked to create Amtrak, now nearly three decades later calls it a "failed experiment." Free of his ties to the rail industry today, he candidly reviews Amtrak's troubled history, its loss of market share, and its inability to provide better and faster service....Vranich argues for passenger trains when and where they are needed. He praises innovative commuter rail agencies, high-speed train planners, and long distance "land cruise" trains run by independent organizations. He also offers insights from other countries in the midst of restructuring their own rail lines, pointing the way to a successful rail system in the United States.
Industry Reviews
Reading this expos? of Amtrak is like studying a statistical chart; the material may be revelatory, but the presentation is boring primarily because Vranich seems to be lobbying Congress rather than the reader. A former public affairs spokesperson for Amtrak, he now calls his former employer a "failed program" that should be jettisoned. Included in his dossier of complaints: derailments; an on-time performance in 1996 of only 70.9%; ridership of 22 million, virtually unchanged since 1979; an employee contract providing furloughed workers full wages for up to six years. Vranich's solution is to privatize this "subsidized monopoly" and devolve it to state governments. He proposes a moratorium on capital funding, then the formation of an independent transition agency that might follow the guidelines formulated by the Japanese National Railways Privatization Study. Among its provisions, routes must show promise of profitability and pass a social-value test. To further discredit Amtrak, Vranich makes unfavorable comparisons with privatized train systems around the world but makes no mention, for example, of safety complaints in Britain, which were especially vehement following the most recent derailment all of which he considers well-managed. Only Amtrak's Washington, D.C.-to-Boston Northeast Corridor, "one of the most important transportation assets in the United States," should be salvaged, he contends, and his solution is to "give" the corridor to the states to franchise. Vranich builds such a convincing case that it's unfortunate he undermines it with tediousness. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Lopate
Reading this expos‚ of Amtrak is like studying a statistical chart; the material may be revelatory, but the presentation is boring primarily because Vranich seems to be lobbying Congress rather than the reader. A former public affairs spokesperson for Amtrak, he now calls his former employer a "failed program" that should be jettisoned. Included in his dossier of complaints: derailments; an on-time performance in 1996 of only 70.9%; ridership of 22 million, virtually unchanged since 1979; an employee contract providing furloughed workers full wages for up to six years. Vranich's solution is to privatize this "subsidized monopoly" and devolve it to state governments. He proposes a moratorium on capital funding, then the formation of an independent transition agency that might follow the guidelines formulated by the Japanese National Railways Privatization Study. Among its provisions, routes must show promise of profitability and pass a social-value test. To further discredit Amtrak, Vranich makes unfavorable comparisons with privatized train systems around the world but makes no mention, for example, of safety complaints in Britain, which were especially vehement following the most recent derailment all of which he considers well-managed. Only Amtrak's Washington, D.C.-to-Boston Northeast Corridor, "one of the most important transportation assets in the United States," should be salvaged, he contends, and his solution is to "give" the corridor to the states to franchise. Vranich builds such a convincing case that it's unfortunate he undermines it with tediousness. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Publishers Weekly (10/06/1997)
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