Sentimental Journey on a Long-Distance Amtrak Route Threatened With Cancellation

ABOARD THE CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR (AP) — It creeps through the twilight into Ottumwa, Iowa, a silver ghost from the past.

In 1923, 57 passenger trains a day called here. Today there is only the California Zephyr — eastbound in the morning, westbound at night.

Ottumwa's two-story brick depot has been in continuous use since 1889, but only barely. Amtrak rents a glass office for its one attendant. Most of the building is used by the local historical society, as a museum.

The Zephyr has a storied past. It follows part of the original transcontinental rail route as it travels from Chicago to near San Francisco. But its future is in peril.

In February, Amtrak's then-president, George Warrington, warned that the Zephyr and 17 other long-distance trains, which cost $1 billion annually to run but bring in only $514 million, would be the first ones cut this fall if Amtrak, perennially short of cash, did not get a major boost in federal support.

Warrington's threat had momentous implications. Shutting down these legendary trains — including the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief and the City of New Orleans, memorialized in song — would mean that, for the first time in 133 years, travelers could not cross the United States by rail.

More recently, Amtrak's new president, David Gunn, warned that the railroad was on the brink of shutting down all service for lack of cash. An agreement with the Bush administration Friday averted the immediate crisis.

The next battle is just around the corner, however. Amtrak insists it cannot operate through 2003 without $1.2 billion in government aid; the Bush administration says it will not approve more than $521 million without major reforms, which could eliminate trains such as the Zephyr.

If history holds, Amtrak will be given just enough to keep running — but not enough to prevent the next crisis, or the one after that.

For now, the Zephyr lives. At its stop in Ottumwa, 20-year-old Maegan Lee Andrzejewski climbs down, returning from Chicago, where she has been planning her wedding with her aunt.

The trip marked the first time Maegan and her husband-to-be, Rodney Baker, have been apart during their seven-month engagement. ``I'm home! I'm home! I'm home!'' she calls, rushing to his arms.

Then, with the hoot of a whistle and the creak of steel, the Zephyr eases out of town. It picks up speed, heading west, running from extinction.

———

The westbound Zephyr leaves Chicago's Union Station each day at 2:45 p.m., carrying a diverse cast of passengers, from retirees and fearful fliers to the cost-conscious and even a few business travelers, working as they go.

The two-day, 2,438-mile trip has barely begun when the Zephyr stops, in Union Station's yard, so that cars containing mail and packages can be coupled to the train.

Amtrak gets 43 percent of its revenue from services other than transporting passengers, including shipping time-sensitive packages. Even so, it has lost money every year since its creation in 1971 and last year lost $1.1 billion.

Mail cars attached, the Zephyr restarts its journey across Illinois, and riders settle in the three double-decker coach cars, where the ride to the West Coast costs $164. In two double-decker sleeper cars, other passengers are splurging on compartments that, depending on size, add $400 to $1,000 to the fare.

The two groups mingle in the lounge car, the train's Main Street. On top is the sightseer lounge, with floor-to-ceiling windows and swivel seats. Below is a refreshment stand selling cocktails and soft drinks, sandwiches and sweets, postcards and playing cards.

Long-distance trains are for those with the time and inclination to savor the journey with a cold drink, a collegial atmosphere, and a pillow. As airplanes have gotten faster and highway speeds higher, train travel on many routes actually takes longer than it did 50 years ago, due in part to increased congestion and decades-old tracks.

``When you're not in a hurry to get where you're going, and you want to see what's in between, and you don't want to drive, what better way to go?'' asks Virginia Switzer of Fern Creek, Ky., bound for Denver.

The typical Zephyr traveler, Amtrak says, is at least 55, on vacation or visiting family and friends, and on board for 876 miles.

``When I was growing up, rail travel was seen as old-fashioned,'' says Ray Dellacroce, 55, a real estate developer heading home to Colorado Springs. ``What I've come to find out is it's a much more civilized way to travel.''

He stretches out in his seat as western Illinois unfolds before him. ``Here I can lean back and put my feet up,'' he says. ``Try that on a plane.''

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Before 1869, when the pioneering rail route between Omaha, Neb., and Sacramento, Calif., was completed, a transcontinental trip took months. Later, New York to San Francisco could be accomplished in a week. A nation still recovering from Civil War suddenly found itself not only united but linked, coast to coast.

It was 80 years later, in 1949, that three railroads created the first train called the California Zephyr. It had meals with silver and linen, ``Vista-Dome'' glass viewing cars, and ``Zephyrettes,'' hostesses in teal two-piece suits.

But as Americans turned to automobiles and planes, the Zephyr's losses mounted and the route was shut down in 1970.

A year later, Amtrak was created to take over money-draining passenger service from freight railroads. Eventually Amtrak resurrected the route.

———

Trains turned Ottumwa into a manufacturing and agricultural center when they arrived in 1859. The city now has a population of 25,000, a community college and, still, the Zephyr.

Lunchtime brings a rush to Canteen Lunch in the Alley, which invites customers to mark their hometowns on a map. Thanks in part to the Zephyr, there are pins from throughout the United States — plus some representing Wales, Northern Ireland, Venezuela, Australia.

Cutting Amtrak service would ``isolate and cripple the transportation systems in southern Iowa,'' the Wapello County Board of Supervisors said in a February resolution urging continued federal subsidies for the Zephyr.

Supervisor Rhea Huddleston faxed the resolution to other places served by Amtrak long-distance trains, collected more than 1,400 signatures on petitions and traveled to Washington to speak at a pro-Amtrak rally.

``If you are any small town, any rural town,'' she said, ``and you end up with the post office leaving, or your school leaving, that makes a big dent. It's like your identity is fading away. And you can look at that with rail service also.''

———

Tumbleweeds bouncing in its wake, the Zephyr blows through western Iowa and Nebraska as its passengers struggle to sleep.

``I've never been on a train that jostled as much as this one,'' says Bill Lawrie of Wayne, Pa., bound for San Francisco.

Amtrak trains are only as smooth as the tracks they run on, and 97 percent of those tracks are owned by freight railroads.

The train wakes to the farmland of western Nebraska — a huge checkerboard with squares of gold and green.

In the sleeper car, a short line forms outside the shower compartment where a wash can begin in Nebraska, in the Central time zone, and finish in Colorado, on Mountain time — an hour earlier.

For hours, the train cuts a straight line through the flat terrain of eastern Colorado under cloudless skies — before a voice in the sightseer lounge turns heads:

``Are those clouds, or mountains?''

The Rockies are on the horizon.

———

Arrival in Denver is at noon, more than three hours behind schedule. Amtrak says its long-distance trains were late 32 percent of the time last year; the Zephyr, 51 percent.

As the train pulls out, beginning a snaking ascent up the Rockies, Ian and Margaret Curley regale their dining-car companions with details of their overnight misadventure with the tardy train.

The middle-aged couple had left their Lincoln, Neb., hotel for the Amtrak station in time for the Zephyr's scheduled 1:30 a.m. arrival.

``We're in the downtown area, just two of us sitting there — prime targets,'' Ian Curley says. ``It started raining. There was an engineer sitting in his car, waiting for the same train. He came over and undid the lock on the station, so we got out of the rain.''

The train arrived at 4:30 a.m.

The Zephyr climbs. More than 9,000 feet above sea level, it enters the 6-mile-long Moffat Tunnel, a shortcut between Denver and Salt Lake City blasted through the Continental Divide in 1920.

The train emerges into bright sunshine and sidles up to the Colorado River, here just a stream. For the next four hours, the scenery is breathtaking: snowcapped mountaintops and whitewater rapids, evergreens clinging to rust-color rocks. Fishermen wave as the train rumbles by.

Already half-drunk from the scenery, riders line up for happy hour in the lounge. Margaritas and whiskey sours are $2.

``What a country this is,'' says a man as the train passes Byers Canyon, Colo.

``Isn't it?'' says a woman, and others join in.

``Awesome.''

``Such beauty.''

———

Following the Colorado River, the Zephyr rocks gently to the left, then gently to the right.

Karin Urquhart of Fairfax, Calif., is reading in her compartment. ``At peace,'' she says. She takes the Zephyr twice a year to visit family in Durango, Colo.

``I love the lulling movement of the train,'' she says. ``I love the sound of the train's whistle up ahead of us.''

During a 15-minute stop in Grand Junction, Colo., a new pair of engineers takes over, and new conductors board. One constant is the sleeping and dining car staffs, who work the six-day roundtrip, then get a week off.

In Denver and Salt Lake City the Zephyr takes fuel for its three GE Genesis locomotive units. Each carries 2,200 gallons of diesel fuel and can provide 4,250 horsepower. Depending on the weight they pull and the terrain they travel, the locomotives get roughly half a mile per gallon.

The Zephyr rolls on. At Green River, Utah, pop. 1,000, an unstaffed depot awaits riders who get on or off. Not many do: last year, not quite four people per day.

The town's fortunes have been tied to the railroad almost since its founding in 1878. It grew as a shipping point, then declined when the railroad moved operations.

``We never dreamed about being a town without a railroad,'' says Allene Spadafora, who has lived here since 1940. ``That's part of our inheritance.''

Connie Copenhaver, a former city recorder, wants to lure a car rental company to town so Amtrak can promote the Zephyr as a convenient way to reach a playground of nearby national parks: Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef.

But promotion may not be the issue. Amtrak says the train is already full during much of the summer.

The biggest problem is the cost of operating the train — labor and maintenance, for example — and wide agreement that fares cannot be bumped much higher. Warrington called the long-distance trains ``inherently unprofitable.''

The dinner menu on the Zephyr's second night pays tribute to the route with Rocky Mountain Stuffed Trout and California Long Horn Porterhouse. With reserved seating, table service and a wine list, dining on the Zephyr recalls the era of luxury trains. But this, too, is passing.

To cut costs, however, Amtrak standardized the menus on its long-distance trains as of May 1.

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The Zephyr is a creature of politics. Its seven-state journey takes it through territory represented by 14 senators and 18 House members, many of whom would have little reason to support Amtrak if not for this train.

It stops four times in the district of Rep. Jim Gibbons, a Republican representing most of Nevada. If the Zephyr ends, he said, so would his votes to fund Amtrak.

``You need a national Amtrak presence to make it a viable entity that can be supported by all states,'' Gibbons said.

Gunn, who took over as Amtrak president in May, says the route structure has long been at the heart of the railway's difficulties. Rather than having Amtrak divine the will of Congress, Gunn said, lawmakers should take a more active role in determining where service should go.

One stop in Gibbons' district is in Sparks, Nev., a growing city of 71,000 which began in 1904 as a Southern Pacific yard. Sports teams here are the ``Railroaders.''

City officials, working with Gibbons, hope to turn an old railroad machine shop into a science center, tourist information office and a grand, Victorian-style station.

But for now, riders get off in the middle of a rail yard, with no services or shelter.

———

On the final day, the Zephyr follows the route of the original transcontinental railroad between Reno and Sacramento.

Rolling through the snowcapped Sierra Nevadas, passengers press against windows to take pictures. The Zephyr descends from mountain chill into springlike weather in California's Sacramento Valley.

Nearly 56 hours have passed since John Olfano boarded in Chicago. Just to get there took him 16 hours on another Amtrak train from Harrisburg, Pa.

A recent medical problem forced Olfano, 30, out of work. Tired of sitting home in Scranton, Pa., he headed west; looking for a journey and not just a trip, he chose the train.

``You take the bus, you're cramped,'' he says. ``You take the plane, you get there the same day, but you don't see nothing. I didn't want that. I wanted to see something new.''

At 8:45 p.m., 2 1/2 hours behind schedule, the Zephyr reaches its final stop in Emeryville, Calif.

Olfano picks up his bags, descends the stairs and steps into the California night, toward buses that shuttle passengers to Oakland and San Francisco.

The empty Zephyr is driven to the rail yard for routine inspections, cleaning and refueling.

At 9:35 a.m., with a new load of passengers and an announcement of ``All aboard!'' it will begin its long trip back.

———

On the Net:

Amtrak: http:/www.amtrak.com/trains/californiazephyr.html

Zephyr online museum: http://calzephyr.railfan.net

Transcontinental and long-distance passenger rail service is dead.
Although there may be a niche-market for weekly service to accommodate tourists and railroad nostalgia buffs.

The future for passenger rail is high-speed regional service in our nation's most densely populated areas.

What is High Speed Ground Transportation?

High-speed ground transportation (HSGT)-- a family of technologies ranging from upgraded existing railroads to magnetically levitated vehicles-- is a passenger transportation option that can best link cities lying about 100-500 miles apart. Common in Europe ( http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/home.htm) and Japan (http://www.japanrail.com),HSGT in the United States already exists in the Northeast Corridor (http://www.amtrak.com/news/pr/atk9936.html) between New York and Washington, D.C. and will soon serve travelers between New York and Boston.

HSGT is self-guided intercity passenger ground transportation that is time competitive with air and/or auto on a door-to-door basis for trips in the approximate range of 100 to 500 miles. This is market-based, not a speed based definition. It recognizes that the opportunities and requirements for HSGT differ markedly among different pairs of cities. High-speed ground transportation (HSGT) is a family of technologies ranging from upgraded steel-wheel-on-rail railroads to magnetically levitated vehicles.

The Federal Railroad Administration has designated a variety of high density transportation corridors within our nation for development of HSGT:

For more information, please visit the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) High Speed Ground Transportation Website

Shutting down these legendary trains — including the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief and the City of New Orleans, memorialized in song — would mean that, for the first time in 133 years, travelers could not cross the United States by rail.

Cry me a river. It's mighty hard to cross the country by horse and buggy too. Progress marches on.

-ccm

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