The Development of the Air Transportation System - Essay Example

Running Head: AMTRAK Amtrak [The [The of the Amtrak Introduction: Transportation is one of the most basic responsibilities of governments in the United States. Public programs supported the initial construction of much of the nation's railroad system, the building of nearly all of the nation's roads and highways, the development of the air transportation system, and the construction of many of the facilities and routes used for water transportation. Government funding has supported much of the research to develop new transportation technologies. No significant aspect of the transportation system has escaped the influence of public policies. The U.S. transportation system has changed substantially since World War II. The construction of the Interstate Highway System greatly enhanced the appeal of road transportation, both for passengers and freight. Air travel became the dominant public carrier mode for intercity passenger travel. In addition, the national government found itself in the passenger train business (Adrian, 1977). Early in U.S. history, passenger travel was often difficult and uncomfortable. With the coming of the railroads, people gained the ability to travel farther and faster than most had ever imagined. Although the early passenger trains were not very comfortable, track and equipment gradually improved. The railroads helped to link different sections of the country and speeded the settlement of the western United States. The railroads were among the first big businesses in the United States, and major railroad executives became celebrities (Adrian, 1986). By 1900, a traveler on a first-class train could expect to find good food, a library, a barbershop, and the company of prominent individuals from the worlds of business, politics, and entertainment. The passenger train for a time appeared to occupy a secure place in society (Beebe, 1976). Challenges Faced to Transportation Industry: Any organization must strike a balance between stability and change, and transportation organizations are no exception. Changing public preferences, new technologies, population movements, and rising or falling prices of supplies may force an organization to make drastic changes in many aspects of its operations. Although transportation organizations must change at times to keep pace with shifting external conditions and to manage internal pressures, a degree of organizational stability is essential. For example, transportation systems require substantial public and private investment in fixed facilities, vehicles, and personnel training. A high degree of instability risks rendering those investments irrelevant or wasteful.( Bowersox,1989) Amtrak: Amtrak has faced considerable difficulties in trying to achieve the desired balance of stability and change needed to maintain credibility as a transportation mode. Beginning with uncertain and conflicting goals, the Amtrak system seemed to be destined for chaos rather than predictability. Repeated attacks by the Reagan administration, conservatives in Congress, and bus companies seemed to foretell large cutbacks or even termination. Moreover, the nation's passenger train system was in relatively poor condition at the time of Amtrak's creation; maintaining the conditions that existed in 1971 would hardly give the system credibility. (Amtrak, 1996) Nonetheless, the Amtrak system has managed to achieve a substantial degree of stability, coupled with significant change - much of it in the nature of improvement. The political turmoil surrounding Amtrak stands in stark contrast to the substantial operational consistency and improvement that the system has achieved. Amtrak Logistic and supply chain Route: One of the fundamental features of any transportation system is its overall reach, the extent of its routes, the number of access points available on those routes, and the utilization of the routes. A system that experiences rapid expansion of its overall reach is likely to be faced with challenges. Quick expansion brings demands for additional equipment and personnel, as well as the problem of attracting customers in areas not accustomed to service in the past. Rapid contractions bring problems as well. Surplus equipment must be stored or disposed of, employees must be reassigned or terminated, and customers facing the loss of service may be upset. The broad reach of the Amtrak system - as indicated by the route miles covered by the system, the number of stations served, and the number of train miles operated -- has displayed significant consistency over time, although some notable variation exists as well. The system expanded gradually until the 1979 cutbacks, which included termination of the National Limited, linking New York and Kansas City; direct Chicago-Miami service on the Floridian; the Lone Star, running from Chicago to Texas; and the North Coast Hiawatha, serving Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. Although the cutbacks were not as large as proposed initially, they produced discernible decreases in system route miles, train miles, and stations served - the largest decreases in the system's history. The distribution of Amtrak service has been a subject of controversy at a number of points in its history. When the system was first established, critics decried the absence of service on some routes; that criticism led to the addition of several trains. Additions and cutbacks in service have been proposed and adopted on several occasions, with mixed results. The early Amtrak system offered direct service between Chicago and Florida and between New York and St. Louis that is not available today (although connections can be made with a change of trains). Conversely, direct service between Chicago and Buffalo was not part of the original system but is available now. Wyoming had passenger rail service under the original Amtrak system, then lost it for several years, regained it, and now lost it again. (Allen, 1988) The amount of service provided by Amtrak varies greatly from state to state. New York, with approximately 10 percent more rail mileage than Oklahoma, has more than three hundred trains weekly while Oklahoma has no service at all. Wyoming and Mississippi have approximately equal rail mileage, but Mississippi has considerably more Amtrak service than does Wyoming. In view of the variation in service from one part of the country to another, the availability and distribution of services has been a continuing issue. A number of studies have sought to explain variations in the geographical distribution of public programs and benefits generally. In some instances, the distribution of benefits and services reflects, at least in part, the exercise of political influence on behalf of local concerns. Individual neighborhoods, communities, or regions may mobilize to gain benefits for themselves based on how much political power they have rather than any defensible standard of need or merit. Political considerations may shape the timing of announcements of benefits and the speed with which claims are processed and may also influence service and benefit levels. Public officials sometimes complain that their home states or districts are being shortchanged in the distribution of public services, which suggests that political careers may be affected by that distribution. Influences on the Distribution of Amtrak Service: Many studies of the distribution of public services and on intergovernmental grants emphasize the role of bureaucratic decision rules in defining the problem environment and establishing responses to it. General decision rules for allocating services may follow several premises. Efficiency criteria seek to allocate services to provide the most benefits for the lowest cost. In contrast, service may be allocated in accordance with demand, usage, or potential revenue contributions; areas where recreational programs are poorly attended, while areas with heavy attendance may gain programs. A compensatory strategy, however, tries to use service distributions to offset or overcome disadvantages, as in the case of a school system that gives additional resources to schools with large numbers of students from poor families (Anderson, 1984). Overall, efficiency criteria should lead to more extensive service in more metropolitan, densely populated states with population centers that are close to major population centers in adjacent states. A compensatory strategy presents a very different framework for allocating services. Amtrak has sometimes been presented as a mechanism for providing mobility for people who are too poor to own a car or fly. The compensatory strategy suggests that services should be concentrated in poorer states, where proportionally more people would be in need of mobility assistance. A demand-oriented strategy would present the opposite tendency. Because Amtrak derives a substantial share of its revenues from its customers, and because it has been under considerable fiscal pressure over the years, it might be inclined to provide disproportionally high levels of service to areas wealthy enough to generate large numbers of paying customers. A pattern of unusually high service levels in wealthier states also would be consistent with the underclass hypothesis, which contends that class biases in the political system lead poorer areas to receive less than their fair share of public services, other things being equal.( Beasley, 1990) The enormous petroleum requirements of the U.S. transportation system have been a source of concern to many observers. At current rates of production and discovery, known U.S. petroleum reserves are likely to become rather skimpy within the next twenty to thirty years; additional deposits will be found, but the bulk of the readily recoverable reserves probably have been discovered. Moreover, approximately two-thirds of the world's known oil reserves are located in the OPEC countries, (Alston, 1984) many of which have alternated between high levels of instability and outright warfare since World War II. The transportation system's heavy dependence on imported oil has contributed to the nation's balance of payments deficit. Passenger trains sometimes have been depicted as part of the solution to the nation's petroleum problems. Conclusion: Transportation analysts long have known that electrified rail systems can carry large volumes of passengers and freight without using oil for propulsion with current patterns of transportation use, the resulting reduction in oil consumption would be comparatively small. The benefits of a large-scale rail electrification program (involving the 20,000 most heavily used miles of the rail system) would emerge slowly, for the program probably would take roughly twenty years to complete. Most of Amtrak's busy Northeast Corridor is already electrified, and steps are being taken to extend electrification east from New Haven to Boston. Large-scale electrification is not a policy option that can produce immediate relief if begun after a major supply disruption is already underway, but it is a policy option with possible benefits for both freight and passenger transportation - an option already in use in a number of other countries. References Bowersox, Closs, and Cooper, Supply Chain Logistics Management, 2nd Edition from McGraw-Hill Irwin.(1989) Adrian, Charles. State and Local Governments, 6th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill 1986. Adrian, Charles, and Charles Press. Governing Urban America, 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill 1977. Alston, Liviu. Railways and Energy. Washington, DC: World Bank 1984. Anderson, James. Public Policy-Making, 3rd Ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 1984. Beebe, Lucius, and Charles Clegg. The Trains We Rode. Berkeley: Howell North 1976. Beasley, M. E. "The Value of Time Spent in Traveling: Some New Evidence". In The Demand for Travel: Theory and Measurement, edited by Richard. Lexington, MA: Heath Lexington Books 1990. Allen, Benjamin, and David Vellenga. "Public Financing of Railroads Under the New Federalism: The Progress and Problems of Selected Programs". Transportation Journal 1988. Amtrak: Cost of Amtrak Railroad Operations Washington, DC: General Accounting Office1996. Amtrak Sourcebook. Washington, DC: National Railroad Passenger Corporation 1988. Read More