Just after posting to this blog on July 22, our old (6 years) computer came down and was replaced by a new one. The new one is far better that the old, though it cost about the same in today's dollars as did the old one in yesterday's dollars. We guess, to an economist, that means that it cost us less in real money. We got more for less than we did 6 years ago. Anyway, it has taken this long to get everything set up, but . . .
We started thinking about the technology that Passenger Rail is using today compared to 6 years ago. It compares because it hasn't changed that much.
In our opinion, this is because Passenger Rail has benefited less from technological blowback than has any other mode of people transport. And where it has benefited, the benefit is not out there where the passengers can see it.
Air transport is starting to fall into this category, too. But there are still investments being made in "cabin comforts" that include high-tech, when passengers are willing to pay for them.
A lot of rail passengers like to ride trains and will pay a lot to do so. But a large part of the train-riding public considers high-tech on the train the same way it would consider a GPS system in an Amish buggy. This is partly because much of our "rail cruise" Amtrak mentality is targeted at the senior citizen with the cash to pay the fare, and it is also partly because our Passenger Rail system continues to operate with (effectively) antique equipment. The only passenger delivery system that seems older right now is NASA's Space Shuttle fleet.
The other problem with high-tech on the rails, at least in America, is that the cost and lead-time for installation of such technology has to be borne, for the most part, by either the freight railroads (where the money is) or the taxpayer (where it more frequently isn't).
And cost it does. Because unlike the personal computer on our desk, the cost of hardware and lead-time to install (not to mention the disruption in business) is increasing. Commercially and governmentally, we are getting less bang (not more) for the buck.
We don't know the answer. But we do know that we would have a lot more people riding the trains if the oldest thing out there was (like our computer) six-years old or less.
© 2007 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
3 comments:
wi-fi is coming - it's already on the California Corridor.
The next step - which is also coming - is to make the train one big integrated local area network. Equipment will be self-diagnosing and will communicate with the repair shop while on the road. I'd like to see fare collection/ revenue management taken into this technological matrix as well - which it will be in some form, but hopefully that form will cut costs and improve the experience rather than just computerize the existing process. Imagine that trains didn't have tickets anymore (like the airlines) - you just called the 800 number (or used the web) and got a reservation. When you got on , to conductor would have a manifest (in real time, as opposed to the print out they get now) that would tell which seats should be occupied an vacant. They could quickly go through the train spot checking people, and actually performing customer service rather than dealing with tickets, which is something that adds no value to the customer (or Amtrak, since it's a pretty major cost). And you might not need assistant conductors and station agents could do things like rent cars instead of selling tickets (see above about adding value or not).
A real time electronic environment would allow conductors to record no-shows and re-sell that space. Conductors could look up reservations if there was an issue.
station announcements could be made automatically, using gps (like public transit) which would again free conductors for value adding customer service. Unstaffed stations could have speakers rigged to telephones so the automated announcements could be triggered based on the gps location of the train (or the conductor or the national operations center could make announcements).
Conductors could accept checked baggage at all stations including unstaffed stations, printing out baggage receipts on the fly.
customers could sign up for automated e-mail notifications of train status at the time of reservation.
Dinning car menus could be made available on the web and orders on the train could be taken in advance, making dinning car turnover faster or facilitating "take out" back to the seat.
Oh, and I hope you are enjoying your new computer. Same process happened to me recently too.
I see that Christopher has thought this over alot. Nice twist on getting all services into one network matrix. I like it. To tell the truth, it sounds like this kind of system would be a lot less costly than some of the others I have heard proposed. Often these expensive proposals come from expensive vendors with untried ideas that would just like to get their hands in with all the rest in the taxpayer's pocket. Have you sent any of your ideas to Amtrak?
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