Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: We welcome our Bloomberg television and radio audiences worldwide. I'm
Speaker 2: Matt Miller alongside Danny Berger. Joining us now is Amtrak
Speaker 2: President Roger Harris. As the company posts record twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: talk to us first off about the year that was
Speaker 2: and our more people. Roger choosing the train because of
Speaker 2: the reliability problem of planes.
Speaker 3: Hi, Matt, good to be here today. Thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So let's talk about twenty twenty five. This is a
Speaker 3: great time to be here at Amtrak. I'm certainly very
Speaker 3: excited about it. We just had our record year in
Speaker 3: terms of ridership. We carried thirty four and a half
Speaker 3: million customers, and I think we did that by running
Speaker 3: a good railroad fos things like on time, performance, cleanliness,
Speaker 3: customer service that in turn generates really strong revenue record
Speaker 3: ticket revenue of two point seven billion dollars. That allows
Speaker 3: us to invest in new product like the new trains,
Speaker 3: the new Assella trains that we launched in August of
Speaker 3: this year. Also, we have a new train coming out
Speaker 3: next year, the Aerrow trains that we'll be seen first
Speaker 3: in the Pacific Northwest and then later in the Northeast Corridor.
Speaker 3: We're also investing in new routes like the new Marti
Speaker 3: Gross service between New Orleans and Mobile. Last year we
Speaker 3: launched the Borealis service between the Twin Cities in Chicago.
Speaker 3: And we're also doing a ton of capital investment in
Speaker 3: infrastructure things like bridges, tunnels, new maintenance facilities. In fact,
Speaker 3: we're spending half a billion dollars a month on new
Speaker 3: capital investments.
Speaker 4: Hey, Roger, if I can just jump in, because I
Speaker 4: am someone who who rides the AM track all the
Speaker 4: time that Northeast Corridor. I go from New York down
Speaker 4: to my home of where I grew up in DC,
Speaker 4: where my family is very frequently and I can say
Speaker 4: without a doubt that the experience on the amtrack is
Speaker 4: way better than flying. The issue is is that very
Speaker 4: very frequently, riding on the AM track and not even
Speaker 4: the SELA is much more expensive. The experience has gotten
Speaker 4: more expensive with the introduction of dynamic pricing that I
Speaker 4: myself over the past couple weekends have opted instead to
Speaker 4: fly because it's been significantly cheaper. Where is the tipping
Speaker 4: point goes, if your pick goes, That's a very important part.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Matt, a very important part to say. But okay,
Speaker 4: what is the tipping point for you where you see
Speaker 4: you can no longer continue to raise prices because people
Speaker 4: will opt for a cheaper option, be it driving themselves
Speaker 4: or a plane.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, this is a very good question, Danny. So,
Speaker 3: I mean, part of the question, part of the dilemma
Speaker 3: we have, is that there's so much interest in passenger
Speaker 3: rail these days across the country. We're seeing ridership surges
Speaker 3: in all areas, and it's supply and demand. Right. If
Speaker 3: we lower the prices too much, then the plane the
Speaker 3: trains fill up too soon and there isn't a seat
Speaker 3: available for that last minute customer. But we see help
Speaker 3: on the way in terms of more capacity, because that's
Speaker 3: really the answer when you have a ton of demand
Speaker 3: like we do today. So the new Ascella trains which
Speaker 3: we're rolling out have twenty seven percent more seats than
Speaker 3: the old generation Ofssellas. We are focusing very hard on
Speaker 3: rolling out those new Asselas. So we have five, we
Speaker 3: have seven in service at the moment, and we're going
Speaker 3: to have twenty four by the end of this coming year.
Speaker 3: And then the new fleet that rolls in as well
Speaker 3: will be additional capacity. So I think that's really the
Speaker 3: right at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2: I say, and I told you about this before, Roger.
Speaker 2: I have a fantastic time on the Amtrak. I reach
Speaker 2: rode down to Richmond, and it was an incredibly refreshing
Speaker 2: and relaxing experience compared to the hustle and bustle of
Speaker 2: the airport, with you know, my flights often getting canceled
Speaker 2: when I get there. However, it was incredibly slow, like
Speaker 2: I had all day, so it was no big deal.
Speaker 2: But I feel like I could have at some points
Speaker 2: walked faster. And I've lived a lot of my life
Speaker 2: in Germany, where the trains do a solid two hundred
Speaker 2: miles an hour. Why are our trains, Why is our
Speaker 2: technology so much slower than that of the rest of
Speaker 2: the developed world. Why don't we have high speed rail?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So, you know, many of the trains we have
Speaker 3: can go faster than the infrastructure allows. And it's really
Speaker 3: about not only the rails, but also things like the
Speaker 3: electrical systems, the wires overhead that supply the electricity for
Speaker 3: the trains.
Speaker 2: Right, But the Germans have figured this out, the French
Speaker 2: have figured this out. The Spanish have figured this out.
Speaker 2: Why can't Americans make fast trains?
Speaker 3: Right? Well, we have to replace all that infrastructure in
Speaker 3: order to make the trains go faster, because that infrastructure
Speaker 3: I was telling you about is basically one hundred years old,
Speaker 3: and trains didn't go that fast one hundred years ago.
Speaker 3: So that's what we're working on. It takes a long
Speaker 3: time to do that. Unfortunately, Well, during.
Speaker 4: The government shutdown, Roger, I'm sure this doesn't help President Trump,
Speaker 4: so that he had terminated sixteen billion dollars in federal
Speaker 4: funding for a new tunnel on the Northeast Corridor. Would
Speaker 4: you like to see more aid, more funding coming from
Speaker 4: this Trump administration, Roger.
Speaker 3: We've in general, we've seen the funding come through every
Speaker 3: month the big projects that we're working on. So I
Speaker 3: think that the challenge at hand is really to kind
Speaker 3: of buckle down and get the projects done that we're
Speaker 3: already working on.
Speaker 2: So I wonder about especially around here, Roger. We care
Speaker 2: so much about the New York area, and the Hudson
Speaker 2: Tunnel project is going to be scrapped under the Trump administration,
Speaker 2: to canceling funding for that, how does that affect the
Speaker 2: Northeast corridor and its most congested area.
Speaker 3: So we're still working through that, and I think that,
Speaker 3: you know, work goes on every day while there's money available.
Speaker 3: So I think the most important thing is to not
Speaker 3: have these projects get interrupted, because that's when things start
Speaker 3: to cost a lot more money. On the east side
Speaker 3: of Manhattan, we're working on rehabilitating East River Tunnels. We're
Speaker 3: going to have the first one back in service next July.
Speaker 3: So those are the things that we're focusing on right now.
Speaker 4: Roger. When it comes to leadership, obviously you are there
Speaker 4: at the helm of Amtrak, but Stephen Gardner was asked
Speaker 4: to resign as CEO just two months into the Trump administration.
Speaker 4: Are there any plans to replace him? And how is
Speaker 4: your relationship currently with the White House given some of
Speaker 4: that back and forth to start his term.
Speaker 3: What's the question I get frequently. You know, I come
Speaker 3: to work every day knowing that there could be further changes,
Speaker 3: But so far, I think we've been working very well
Speaker 3: with the administration doing the things that we have in common.
Speaker 3: We want to run a great railroad, we want to
Speaker 3: get this infrastructure built. And if you've traveled west out
Speaker 3: of Manhattan recently, you've seen the Portal North Bridge that's
Speaker 3: grown up out of the marsh almost and we're going
Speaker 3: to have the first trains operating on that span with
Speaker 3: our partners New Jersey Transit shortly after the new year.
Speaker 3: So there's real tangible evidence of this investment in infrastructure.
Speaker 2: I got to ask about New Jersey Transit. It's the
Speaker 2: bane of many people's existence, right, I think intelligently chose
Speaker 2: Westchester as a place to live, and Metro North is
Speaker 2: awesome and always working and very often on time, whereas
Speaker 2: New Jersey Transit, like we write stories on a weekly
Speaker 2: basis about how bad it is delays, you know, stoppage
Speaker 2: and tunnels. Why is that such a problem compared to
Speaker 2: riding up and down from Westchester. Why is crossing over
Speaker 2: the river into New Jersey so much more painful for commuters?
Speaker 3: Well, I think that I think one of the problems
Speaker 3: is that going west, we only have two tubes under
Speaker 3: the Hudson, whereas there's a lot more capacity coming into
Speaker 3: Grand Central station for Metro North, and even from the
Speaker 3: east there are four tunnels under the East River. But
Speaker 3: I would say this that all railroads have a really
Speaker 3: hard time every day facing just the reality of old
Speaker 3: infrastructure and the reality of the operation, and I think
Speaker 3: there's plenty of challenges to go around.
Speaker 2: Got to invest in infrastructure, Got to invest in infrastructure.
Speaker 4: Roger, thank you so much for joining us. That's Roger
Speaker 4: Harris of Amtrak.