The overall operating philosophy of Amtrak 90 is for maximum utilization of cars and locomotives to meet train requirements as established by marketing goals. Reliable and punctual train operation is essential to produce satisfied customers and to efficiently utilize equipment. Systemwide on-time standards must reach 95 percent or better. Late trains mean missed connections for travelers and require that additional equipment be held in reserve. As punctuality improves and as schedules are tightened through increasing speeds, equipment turnaround times can be reduced and more cars can be available for train assignments. As system expansion takes place and new or strengthened servicing centers are brought on line, other operating efficiencies also accrue. The average number of miles per car and per locomotive will increase and downtime will drop.
As the frequency of train service increases in many of the corridors, scheduling of both passenger and freight trains will be essential to maintain capacity. This will require a significant change in operating philosophy of owner railroads where passenger and freight traffic is intermingled on the same route. The time-honored railroad practice of "running extra" will have to be changed and specific time slots assigned for freight trains as well as passenger trains. Slots can remain unused if demand slackens. It is far easier to program a train into an operating diagram and cancel it than to add a train to an already planned schedule. This practice has permitted European railroads to handle up to 80 trains per day on single-track lines and more than 200 per day on double track.
Station capacity can also be increased through reliable operations and proper scheduling. For example, by improving on-time performance and reducing station dwell time, all of the trains proposed for major stations like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., can be handled without additional platform tracks. A station with four tracks for train arrivals and departures should be able to handle 30 to 40 trains per day if schedules are properly planned and maintained.
Scheduling
Detailed schedules have been developed for short- and long-term scenarios of this plan. They are based upon market needs, equipment availability, travel time, plant capacity, and maximum connectivity.
Various densities of service are offered that reflect overall travel demand (Figure 5). On a few routes that operate through areas of low population density and connect widely separated cities, a single long-distance daily train is adequate to meet demand. Here operating costs are kept down by using unmanned stations at many small communities, with tickets sold through travel agencies or on board the train. Most of the Amtrak 90 system, however, offers multiple frequencies of service that reflect higher travel demands. For example, urban areas of 500,000 or greater separated by 500 to 700 miles of distance would have daytime and overnight services. Where similar size places are closer together, travel demand intensifies and the number of trains is increased to meet that demand. These trains are then scheduled at reasonable intervals throughout the day to offer a wider choice of travel times. Thus the train is more competitive with other modes. To illustrate, Figure 10 shows the sample schedules proposed for 1986 for the Hudson-Great Lakes Corridor. Long-distance, medium-distance daytime and overnight services, and short-distance corridors are all integrated into a service that offers a wide range of travel time choices in shorter, time-sensitive markets (e.g., Toledo-Cleveland, Albany-New York. It offers day and night services between wider spaced city pairs (e.g., Chicago-Buffalo, Buffalo-New York) and maintains a through service between the end-point cities of Chicago and New York.
Planning of schedules must also maximize connections at the end points of each route. Through careful integration of schedules of the various corridors radiating from Chicago (Figure 11), it is possible to make trips easily from a community on one route to a station on another one if the connections are convenient and do not require a lengthy layover. Examination will show that it is easy to travel from Milwaukee to Ft. Wayne or from Springfield to Kalamazoo or from Champaign to Davenport because connections are good for these short-distance trips. The same holds for the possibility of making connections from long-distance to short-distance trains or from medium-distance overnight (e.g., Omaha to Chicago) to a medium-distance day train (e.g., Chicago to Cleveland). The range of conveniently possible train trips greatly increases with this type of scheduling.
Speed
Amtrak trains outside of the Northeast Corridor are slow not only in comparison with passenger trains operated on main-line railroads in other parts of the world, but they are frequently slower than trains two decades ago on the same routes. While more than $2 billion has been spent in upgrading the 456-mile spine of the Boston-New York-Washington Northeast Corridor for 125-mile-per-hour operation, there is no need to make an investment of that magnitude in order to bring overall passenger train speeds up to competitive levels. Figure 12 shows target end-to-end travel speeds, and some sample journey times for 1990 illustrate goals for the planning period. Speeds in these suggested ranges are considerably above automobile trip times and for journeys of up to 300 miles may equal or better aircraft times if airport-to-downtown travel is included.
Other Operational Considerations
A major benefit of an expanded system will be a better physical support base. At the present time many Amtrak long-distance trains receive no intermediate servicing other than refueling or the addition of water between the end terminals on journeys that may exceed 2,000 miles. One train a day hardly justifies the expense of keeping staff on hand for a 30-minute replenishment of food, cleaning, etc. If several trains operate at an intermediate point, it then becomes economically justifiable to provide better intermediate support. In 1990 when Omaha, Denver, and Salt Lake City each see several trains a day, justifying additional servicing facilities and staff, then the long-distance San Francisco Zephyr also will benefit from better supply and maintenance.
Blocks of traffic that cover only a portion of a particular train's trip can be more effectively handled by switching out or picking up cars at points where travel volume drops off or increases. This reduces hauling empty cars, and thereby increases equipment utilization.
For example, passengers might board a parked passenger car at 9p.m. although the car would not be switched onto a passenger train until 1:30 a.m., or have the convenience of remaining in one set out at 4:30a.m. until 7: 00 or 8:00 a.m.
This type of service, particularly suited to overnight sleeping car travel, was practiced by American railroads for many years and is still widely used in Britain and on the Continent. It is also useful for express and mail cars that can be loaded or unloaded at leisure instead of requiring lengthy stops. Through cars switched from one train to another are a good way of handling traffic between points where there is limited demand that may not justify a through train.
The introduction of bi-level cars designed for push-pull service will lead to operational efficiencies in short-distance trains running out of Chicago and Los Angeles. Push-pull trains have a locomotive at one end and a passenger car equipped with a control cab at the other. Locomotives pull the train on the outward journey from major terminals and push the train on the inward return. This eliminates the need to turn the train around or switch locomotives from one end to the other, thereby reducing terminal time. Another advantage is that it facilitates the operation of trains through major stub-ended terminals like Chicago and Los Angeles. For example, a train being pushed into Los Angeles from Santa Barbara could pull directly out and continue on to San Diego, making operation of the through Santa Barbara-San Diego service much easier.
Push-pull trains are widespread in U.S. commuter railroading and are used in short-distance, high-volume service in the Netherlands, Switzerland, West Germany, Belgium, and Denmark.