CK, I am also a west coaster, but I have picked up a lot of information about the NEC. I even rode it once, way back in 1976 when my mother and I took it from Washington to Boston, stopping a couple of times along the way. The NEC is a high density, high frequency, heavily traveled rail corridor between Washington and Boston. It also serves New York City, and a whole lot of other places in between.
This is about the only part of the Amtrak system where Amtrak also owns the infrastructure. Amtrak was forced by Congress to take ownership of the infrastructure in 1976 when Penn Central went bankrupt and Conrail was formed from the ashes. The NEC infrastructure not only serves Amtrak trains but other commuter systems and a good deal of freight traffic, too. Amtrak's Acela trains and Acela Express (formerly known as the Metroliners) are the primary Amtrak routes. Some long distance trains also pass in and out of the NEC.
Supposedly, the NEC is the only part of Amtrak's network that is profitable. I say "supposedly" because nobody has ever really done a thorough independent audit of Amtrak's finances, and Amtrak's bookkeeping practices are confusing at best. 
I question the notion of its profitability because Amtrak has a $5.8 billion backlog of deferred maintenence on that infrastructure. If it were truly profitable there would be no such backlog.
There are some who believe that Amtrak was starting to turn a profit before it was burdened with the NEC infrastructure. That would not surprise me in the least. If I understand it correctly, the vast majority of Amtrak's subsidies since 1976 have gone into the NEC, not the long distance trains.
Amtrak, as an institution, seems to have a distinct NEC bias. This is probably the result of Amtrak's political dependency on Congress which is located in Washington, which is served by the NEC. Congresspeople ride the NEC all the time. They do not ride long distance trains very often. For many Congressmen, the NEC is about all they know of Amtrak. 
George Warrington's Amtrak career was spent on the NEC operations, which further explains Amtrak's NEC orientation.
The rail corridors in California and the Pacific Northwest, which you and I are most familiar with, are state funded systems. Amtrak does not own any equipment (at least in California), it does not select routes or determine policy. Amtrak was simply hired by the western states to run these state owned trains. Not so with the NEC, which is a regional service funded by the entire country.
In my humble opinion, Amtrak, as the NATIONAL Railroad Passenger Corp, shouldn't be concentrating its efforts on a regional corridor, it should be concentrating on the national system. The NEC should be the responsibility of the Northeastern states, as it is out our way. Amtrak's main responsibility should be the long distance trains, as it was originally set up to do.
The ARC agrees that the NEC is sucking resources (both financial and human) away from the national system and proposes that it be spun off, but still under the same umbrella organization as Amtrak. The ARC also wants to put a layer of bureaucracy between Amtrak and Congress to shield Amtrak from day to day political whims at the Capitol. That, in my mind, would be a good thing.
I hope that helps. If I've gotten any of my facts wrong someone is sure to correct me.
------------------
Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy
The Del Monte Club Car
[This message has been edited by Mr. Toy (edited 02-11-2002).]
Printer-friendly view of this topic
