Speaker 1: Just about three thirty pm here in New York. This
Speaker 1: is the countdown to the close arm remain bostic.
Speaker 2: And I'm Alex Steele. Guess what's that's performing today? What's
Speaker 2: now Transportation index? And I wonder if that's a China
Speaker 2: effect or if it's growth here in the US effect,
Speaker 2: But it is outperforming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was kind there to I saw earlier this
Speaker 1: week it is all airlines rallying, a lot of transportation
Speaker 1: socks rallying as well here, and of course I think
Speaker 1: a lot of US, at least certainly here in the US,
Speaker 1: obsess over some of these transportation stocks. Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: because we try to get fromer point A to point B,
Speaker 1: and if you're in New York, that's impossible even when
Speaker 1: it's not un week here. And of course it raises
Speaker 1: a lot of questions here about the infrastructure that we
Speaker 1: have to move people around.
Speaker 3: So whether it is by land, air, or sea. You know,
Speaker 3: you have a.
Speaker 1: Huge amount of passengers utilizing US transportation systems every year,
Speaker 1: more than three hundred million, and just last year twenty
Speaker 1: eight million of those passengers chose But what you're looking
Speaker 1: at they are Amtrak, formerly known as the National Railroad
Speaker 1: Road Passenger Corporation amtractors remained one of the go to
Speaker 1: services for inner city rail travel, particularly here in the Northeast,
Speaker 1: but it also has challenges, be it outdated infrastructure causing
Speaker 1: delays or increase competition from other private rail companies. Here
Speaker 1: to talk about all that is well, the president of Amtrak,
Speaker 1: Roger Harris, joining us right now from Union Station down
Speaker 1: in Washington, DC. And Roger, great to have you back
Speaker 1: here on the program. I do want to start off
Speaker 1: you guys have been spending a lot of money last
Speaker 1: time I checked, at least in the fiscal year. Last year,
Speaker 1: at twenty twenty three, you had one of your biggest
Speaker 1: capital investments. The Biden administration gave you a big shot
Speaker 1: in the arm about a year ago, fundeling several billion
Speaker 1: dollars to railroads here. How exactly is that money being spent?
Speaker 4: Hi remain Thanks for having me back. It's good to
Speaker 4: be here. Well, it's going on a lot of different things.
Speaker 4: It's partly going on new fleet, so we have new
Speaker 4: trains coming this winter. We're going to be hopefully putting
Speaker 4: into service our new Aessela trains coming after that in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty seven, we will be launching our new Aerrow
Speaker 4: trainsets on the Northeast Regional service in the Northeast, so
Speaker 4: really a complete makeover of the trains that we have
Speaker 4: in the northeast of the US. We're also spending a
Speaker 4: lot of money on new infrastructure, not only in things
Speaker 4: like tracks, signaling, and electrical infrastructure that really makes the
Speaker 4: railroad run every day, but also those really big one
Speaker 4: hundred year investments in things like major bridges and tunnels.
Speaker 4: And that's really a lot of the work that we're
Speaker 4: going to have us getting underway and earnest in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty five. So you mentioned that we have a lot
Speaker 4: of growth in our capital spending in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: Well this year twenty twenty four, we grew fifty percent
Speaker 4: for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: And is that going to continue into twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: and beyond. And if so, Roger, are some of the
Speaker 1: those costs are they going to be passed on to
Speaker 1: the commuter? Are they going to pay more in ticket prices?
Speaker 4: So the large infrastructure items that we're talking about are
Speaker 4: primarily funded through the I I J at this point,
Speaker 4: so they won't inherently be passed on to the commuter
Speaker 4: in that form. We have a lot of other costs
Speaker 4: that are going up though at the same time, so
Speaker 4: there are price increases probably underway, but it's for all
Speaker 4: kinds of other inputs.
Speaker 2: Roger, it's Alex, what's the biggest hurdle to you building
Speaker 2: these projects on time and on budget? Like, what's the
Speaker 2: risk that you take on in the medium.
Speaker 4: Term, Alex, great question. One of the things we've done
Speaker 4: since the money was awarded is we have built up
Speaker 4: an incredible infrastructure of project management, project controls, things to
Speaker 4: make sure that we get the projects done right and
Speaker 4: that we don't have a lot of unpleasant prizes later on.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of steps that we have to
Speaker 4: go through, including environmental clearances, historical clearances. We work with
Speaker 4: our partners who are investors in these projects, and those
Speaker 4: steps typically take a number of years. And that's why
Speaker 4: you don't see these projects delivering benefits yet because the
Speaker 4: setup of the projects really takes a long time. But
Speaker 4: it's a necessary part of making sure that they're successful
Speaker 4: in the long run.
Speaker 2: So then how do you compete back to Romains's original question,
Speaker 2: how do you compete then with more of the private
Speaker 2: players who can get in there in a different way
Speaker 2: and move money faster and build projects faster.
Speaker 4: Very good question. We have a lot of efforts underway
Speaker 4: to be more efficient. So when you look at, for instance,
Speaker 4: our newest sellers that, as I said, we hope to
Speaker 4: launch this winter, they carry about twenty five percent more
Speaker 4: customers than the previous sellers, and they're about twenty five
Speaker 4: percent lighter. So they're actually going to be twenty percent
Speaker 4: more energy efficiently, and that translates directly into lower operating costs,
Speaker 4: especially on a per passenger basis.
Speaker 1: You know, Roger, I am curious when we talk long
Speaker 1: term about the future and the health of Amtrak, when
Speaker 1: we talk about the number of miles of tracks you have,
Speaker 1: the number of passengers you have a lot of that
Speaker 1: is still and correct if I'm wrong, still weighted towards
Speaker 1: the Northeast Corridor. And I am curious as to whether
Speaker 1: there are ambitions to do more outside of the Northeast,
Speaker 1: whether there is profitability to be had outside of the Northeast.
Speaker 3: Is there? I think so?
Speaker 4: I mean there's some very unique features of the Northeast
Speaker 4: Corridor that do help to make it profitable, including density, congestion,
Speaker 4: et cetera. But those things are happening all over the
Speaker 4: country as the country grows. We've been investigating the Texas
Speaker 4: High speed Rail project to see what we can do
Speaker 4: there to assist in the development of that project, because
Speaker 4: we think that's very promising. Between Dallas and Houston. It's
Speaker 4: a metro market of fifteen million people and perfectly situated
Speaker 4: for high speed rail. We also have really exciting developments
Speaker 4: in North Carolina with the S Line project, which also
Speaker 4: got some funding in the last round of grants from
Speaker 4: the FRA, and we continue to work with our partners
Speaker 4: in the Commonwealth of Virginia on extending and expanding rails
Speaker 4: between Washington, d C. And Richmond, Virginia, which will eventually
Speaker 4: connect to the S Line projects.
Speaker 1: In addition to those issues, there's also the issue of
Speaker 1: delays and other things. Some of that has to do with,
Speaker 1: of course, the tracks that you control, or rather that
Speaker 1: you don't control. I know you guys have made some
Speaker 1: deals recently that gives you more control of tracks.
Speaker 3: Even in Union Station, where.
Speaker 1: You're at right now, you've gained a greater degree of
Speaker 1: control of what comes in and out of there.
Speaker 3: Do you have more leverage to do that?
Speaker 1: In other cities and other regions as well well.
Speaker 4: I think we do. One of the things that we're
Speaker 4: really focused on is working with our partners to have
Speaker 4: the kind of relationships that really enable those improvements that
Speaker 4: you're talking about. Whether it be our host railroads or
Speaker 4: freight railroads that we run on, We're really trying to
Speaker 4: work hard to make sure that we understand their concerns.
Speaker 4: And also, you know, all over the country we were
Speaker 4: commuter agencies who are also an important part of the
Speaker 4: rail environment, and they're necessary parts of the environment in
Speaker 4: terms of the investments that need to be made.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One just final quick question here, and you mentioned the
Speaker 1: host tracks that you're on. Obviously a lot of those
Speaker 1: either owned or operated by the freight companies. There's a
Speaker 1: big potential strike in East Coast ports. It could have
Speaker 1: reverberations on rail lines. Is that going to affect Amtrak
Speaker 1: at all?
Speaker 3: We don't expect it to.
Speaker 4: I mean, there may, in isolated situations, create congestion on
Speaker 4: the freight lines, but we don't expect it to impact
Speaker 4: our operations.
Speaker 1: All right, Roger, we'll let you get back to work.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you taking time to be with us today. Roger Harris.
Speaker 1: He's the president of Amtrak down there in Union Station
Speaker 1: in Washington, DC.