Derailed: What Went Wrong and What to Do about America's Passenger Trains

In the midst of renewed interst in the future of AMTRAK, Jospeh Vranich has delivered the best available work on the subject. AMTRAK must be viewed in a multi-modal passanger an freight enviroment. Saddled with antiquated thinking, and a politically motivated route structure, the ability of AMTRAK to deliver on the promise of future profitability is indeed open to question. Vranich provides the history, politics, technical information, and marketing factors which will effect futre passenger rail operations in the United States. Although controversial, his facts are well researched and his opinions appear well founded. I found the book quite readable, and a must buy for anyone intersted in the area of passenger rail transportation.

What strikes me about "Derailed" is that the author admits he's been wrong in the past. How often do we hear such candor from well-known experts? Joseph Vranich, who lobbied on Capital Hill to create Amtrak, now regrets his work. He admits that Amtrak is incapable of running fast trains that are convenient to American travelers. By the time I finished with the book, I agreed with him.Amtrak imperils its own future. The author explains that Amtrak for the most part ignores market clues about changing travel needs. Instead, Amtrak works to please members of Congress by running trains on an old-fashioned network. Amtrak's political maneuvering means the railroad is headed for higher financial losses and needs more pork-barrel money for questionable projects. Billions more in government subsidies are sure to follow the billions already spent.But there is much here that's positive about passenger trains in the United States and around the world. Also, "Derailed" offers an imaginative ten-point plan to replace Amtrak with innovative organizations. I've never read anything quite like it. The plan also is a courageous stance for an admitted train-lover like Vranich to take.

I read this book not because I'm concerned about Amtrak but because I'm interested in railroads. Derailed turned into the best non-fiction I've read since leaving college a decade ago.The book takes a fresh approach to tired subjects. Wonder how many passenger trains operate independently of Amtrak in the United States? A photo layout helps illustrate that point. Curious about why Amtrak long-distance trains are in so much trouble? This book explains an ominous market shift where overnight passenger trains are in decline worldwide, even in Europe.Finally, I understand why Amtrak is in trouble over subsidies. Derailed explains how the "subsidy-per-passenger" is way out of line as compared with per-capita highway and aviation use. That's because Amtrak carries too few people despite Washington's generosity in giving it billions of dollars in subsidies.I've met people who will never ride Amtrak again. If my company treated our clients the way Amtrak has treated its passengers, we'd be out of business. Derailed touches upon that issue, also, giving readers refreshing food for thought. I don't know if Amtrak will survive or be liquidated, but it appears that the contents of this book will be part of the debate. If a book is a success or failure depending on whether it makes you think -- then Derailed is a huge success.

Joseph Vranich offers more than a chronology of poor Amtrak service -- he provides convincing arguments that "We need passenger trains, but we don't need Amtrak." That viewpoint has validity as Amtrak's market share declines to its lowest level in history. In fact, more people fly on domestic airlines in two days that ride Amtrak all year.Although "Derailed" relies a bit too much on statistics, its facts and figures justify "new thinking" about Amtrak's system, which is a throwback to the pre-jetliner, pre-Interstate highway era of the 1950s. Rigidly sticking with the past is costly as Amtrak requires higher per-passenger subsidies than do airlines and highways, suffers financial losses in the billions, and flirted with bankruptcy just last year.The book fills an enormous void in nonfiction by outlining how nations as diverse as Argentina, Great Britain and Japan are revolutionizing railroads through privatization, devolvement to sta! te governments and liquidation. Americans assume "privatization" is code for "no subsidies," but overseas it means better trains and lower subsidies through competitive bidding for franchises. Vranich argues for a cautious Amtrak phase-out so that needed trains will remain to serve legitimate travel needs, and he would cheer if Richard Branson's Virgin Rail would take over Amtrak's Boston-Washington line.Today's headlines reflect Vranich's themes. A new report by the U.S. General Accounting Office warns that Amtrak's financial condition remains "precarious" despite traffic increases and Washington's recent multi-billion-dollar bailout of Amtrak. We cannot ignore the advice in "Derailed," which makes sense as Amtrak continues to falter in many parts of the nation.

In "Supertrains", Joseph Vranisch introduced the reader to the vital link in mass transportation taking shape in all corners of the world: high speed rail. In "Derailed", the author critically examines Amtrak, meticulously explaining how America's publicly financed passenger rail program has been an abject failure in carving out an important niche in the transportation arena as well as directly and indirectly sabotaging high speed rail programs along the way. Drawing on numerous statistics, Vranich illustrates how, with the exception of the Northeast corridor, Amtrak has done little more than provide Americans with a passenger rail service on a level only encountered in several developing nations. An early chapter also makes note that most of Amtrak's trains currently have longer schedules and endure more mechanical problems than the trains of the 1940's and 50's. Later chapters of the book outline the success enjoyed by other rail systems that are either a private enterprise or formed by public-private partnerships: commuter rail systems such as those in Chicago and New York, the freight companies such as Burlington Northern and Conrail and the tourist trains such as the Alaska Railroad, which, since its privatization has enjoyed its greatest financial success. The final chapters center on Vranich's arguments for the dissolution of Amtrak, a 10 step phase-out plan and his proposal for public-private partnerships in future passenger rail service as witnessed by the successful TGV in France. His convictions in this area are both passionate and highly cogent. One can only hope that the leaders of our nation will read this book and use it as a blueprint for reshaping America's transportation infrastructure.