A New Sunset for Phoenix?
I am busy gathering the specifics about this story, so take that into consideration while I give you the gist of a frustrating, yet interesting situation. It’s about short-sighted decisions involving Amtrak’s train #1 and #2, the Sunset Limited, which runs three days a week in each direction between Los Angeles and New Orleans.
Almost exactly twenty years ago, the Sunset Limited made its last scheduled station stop at Phoenix. Ever since, the train has stopped instead at Maricopa, Arizona, which is about 40 miles from Phoenix. The change was made because a stretch of track the train followed in and out of Phoenix had deteriorated and the Sunset either had to inflict an uncomfortable ride on its passengers or run at slower speeds and thereby screw up its schedule.
The obvious answer was to bring that stretch of track up to standard, but the cost estimate for doing so was something like $27 million and no one wanted to pony up the money–not Amtrak, not the City of Phoenix, not the State of Arizona, and not the federal government.
And so the Sunset stopped serving a city of 1.6 million people–it also happens to be the state capital– and began stopping instead at a town of 45,000 people about 40 miles away. Add to that the somewhat inconvenient arrival times–5:30 in the morning for the eastbound train and 9:00 p.m. westbound–and quite understandably the hour-plus drive to Maricopa for Phoenix residents became a real obstacle for potential Amtrak passengers.
Oh … and the Sunset’s three-day-a-week schedule added one more deterrent. It’s one thing to meet a train at 5:30 in the morning in downtown Phoenix; quite another if you first have to drive 40-some miles to do it.
Along the way, a study was done and among its findings was the estimate that Amtrak has lost $3 million dollars in revenue every year since the Sunset switched to stopping at Maricopa.
OK, kiddies, let’s do the math: $3 million bucks a year for 20 years is $60 million in revenue … lost.
Why? Because Amtrak, either alone or in some arrangement with state or local government, wouldn’t or couldn’t find a way to raise and invest $27 million in order to make $60 million.
Well, this story may not end on a note of ineptitude. The numbers are compelling and there seems to be a groundswell building in the grassroots … not just to have the Sunset Limited stopping in Phoenix once again, but to have the train run every day in both directions. Just like a real railroad.
So watch this space.
I would love for service to return to Downtown Phoenix. It’s a shame that the City of Phoenix let Union Station go. I recently had to make the drive to Maricopa from Laveen to pick up my parents.
Although I am known for promoting the industry concept of benchmarking with VIA Rail Canada to learn how a true first class transcon train should operate, in this case, we should also benchmark to VIA to understand the parallels to “The Sunset” when the route and frequency degenerate.
-Revenues deteriorated when “The Canadian” was forced off (politics!) of its traditional southern Canadian Pacific route that served the major cities between Toronto-Vancouver, as well as directly Banff and Lake Louise in the Rockies. “The Canadian” had not only served tourists, but certainly the local population along this route utilized this train.
-Decreased revenues due to a new northerly Canadian National route that avoided major cities led to frequency reduction from daily to only twice per week, except summer months, when it is run three times per week. (How do you not serve Phoenix???)
-However, many of the costs are direct and fixed, e.g., depot, whether the train operates daily or only two days per week. Fewer trains merely means higher costs for the trains remaining. (How many staffed depots on “Sunset” route for three runs per week; crew layovers, etc?)
Whether or not “Sunset” will be extended beyond New Orleans to Biloxi, Jacksonville, and even, Orlando, current schedule of “Sunset” is an atrocity that must be remedied, as it does not even conveniently serve Palm Springs, or, the potential corridor from there to LA. Where in this world does a train arrive at 0535 as the “Sunset Limited” into LA?