Getting Into Training

I originally sat down to write this as a rebuttal to a Statesman Journal editorial which was against reinstating the Portland/Salt Lake City/Denver Pioneer because of cost. We rode this particular train in 1981 on the way to Chicago and thoroughly enjoyed the journey through Eastern Oregon, across Idaho and into Utah. I have always loved riding trains and believe that they are a very cost effective mode of transport in many situations. But I then made the "mistake" of reading the background report analyzing the cost to re-open this service. Especially in this country's economic circumstances, I am afraid it is a no-go.

The numbers show that it would take upwards of $400 million in capital improvements to get the Pioneer rolling again. I think that the estimate is probably high but even at half that number, it is a lot. Moving on to operating cost recovery, the train is only projected to recover 20-30% of its costs, which is much lower than the Amtrak average of 50% or so for other trains. This is a function of the low population density along most of the route.

In dense markets of up to about 500 miles, like Salem - Portland - Seattle, trains are a very efficient way of moving people. Adding a second or third track is much less expensive than adding freeway lanes and taking people off the increasingly jammed I-5 and whisking them quickly, comfortably and economically back and forth to Seattle is a laudable goal. Alas, the same economics are not there for the long hauls across the empty spaces of the American West.

For long distance trains to make it on the long, thin Western routes, they are going to have to be recast as land cruises like a cruise ship or combined with on-board carriage of passengers' autos like the Auto Train on the East Coast, or both. Until that time, and to my sorrow, trains like the Pioneer will remain a dream from the past and the auto or the jet will have to do. Vaya con Dios!