From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Subject: Re: Vranich on Texas High-Speed Rail
Organization: LLNL
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 04:30:35 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.175553.19500@ntmtv> adrian@ntmtv.UUCP (Adrian Brandt) writes:
: Here is a press release from Joseph Vranich that I found posted
: on rec.railroad. ...

:    "Southwest Airlines owes an apology to the people of Texas,
: particularly innocent farmers who have been unjustly alarmed, for its
: malicious campaign," said Vranich.

:    Vranich issued a two-pronged defense of high-speed rail.  One part
: consists of a lengthy research document, "An Expose of Southwest
: Airlines' Cunning Deceptions about High-Speed Rail," which refutes,
: point by point, charges that the airline has made.

	It would be interesting to see what he had had to say there.

	I've read his book _Supertrains_, and he reports some details
about Southwest Airlines' campaign against the Texas TGV.

	The airline's chairman, Herb Kelleher, had ridiculed the
proposed train as a "Conestoga wagon with lights", for example. A 200
mph train is about 1/3 as fast as a typical airliner (about 500-600
mph), and a train can go into a city center, while most airliners
cannot.

	Kelleher also argued that high-speed rail is "arguably less
safe" than aviation, something contrary to the experience had with
existing high-speed rail systems like the TGV and the Japanese Bullet
Trains.

	When that didn't work, he tried to suggest that maglev might
make steel-wheel trains obsolete. However, maglev is still in no shape
to build long-distance lines with.

	If the rest of his maneuvers failed, he threatened to move the
headquarters of his airline out of Dallas, which sounds like a temper
tantrum more than anything else.

:    The other is a piece of hypothetical legislation, "the Texas
: Air-Rail Equity Act." If enacted, the bill would put aviation and
: high-speed rail on an equal footing.

	That would be fun to see also.

:    "Everyone would be shocked if Texas passed a law putting Southwest
: Airlines under the same laws as high-speed rail," Vranich said.
: "Southwest Airlines would be forced to pay franchise fees to operate
: in the state, Texas airports could not sell tax-exempt bonds,
: airports would be privatized and forced to pay property taxes, and
: inducements that lure industry to airports would be eliminated."

	If that was done, then the airline business would sink like a
stone. Consider that in a recent year, the US airline industry earned
$1 billion, while air traffic control cost $3 billion (source: Joseph
Vranich) [Unless technologies or business practices drastically
differ, I'm sure that similar numbers can be found for elsewhere in
the world] If one counted up other costs, then the same story might be
told there also.

	Despite all the flak that Amtrak gets about being subsidized
(that seems to be one of its best known features, it seems), airlines
are subsidized to a much greater degree. Joseph Vranich calls the
numerous airline subsidies a "Gravy Plane", which he documents in gory
detail.

	But one thing that has gotten in the way of pointing out
airline subsidies is almost certainly the fact that those in
policymaking positions -- corporate executives, political leaders,
etc. -- are typically rather frequent fliers, and would be embarrassed
to discover what their favorite means of long-distance transportation
depends on.

:    He disagreed with legislators who want to restrict the use of
: eminent domain for high-speed rail and to put the fledgling train
: operation under the regulation of the Texas Railroad Commission.
: "Under my proposed bill, the right to use eminent domain to obtain
: land for airports also would disappear and Southwest Airlines would
: also come under the regulatory authority of the Texas Railroad
: Commission." Vranich added: "Southwest Airlines claims it wants a
: level playing field with high-speed rail.  I say, pass this bill that
: would create that level playing field and watch them scream as their
: favored treatment, special privileges and taxpayer-financed subsidies
: disappear."

:    Most offensive of all, he said, is Southwest's campaign to incite
: Texas citizens to alarm against the high-speed plan by supplying them
: with false material.  Texas farmers concerned about their
: livelihoods, Vranich noted, haven't been told that farmers elsewhere
: in the United States support high-speed rail as an alternative to
: land-gobbling airports and interstate-type highways with
: 300-foot-wide rights-of-way.

	I may add that high-speed train tracks usually occupy as much
land as a two-lane road, and some possible high-speed lines are
upgrades of existing rail lines.

:    "Exaggerated claims about train noise have needlessly worried
: farmers," said Vranich.  "I traveled throughout Europe two months
: ago.  On every trip, I watched cattle, horses, sheep, goats and hogs.
: What were they doing?  They were eating, standing or sleeping near
: the tracks.  Not one time did I observe any animals becoming
: 'spooked' in any way.  This was true in England, France, Spain,
: Italy, Switzerland and Germany where I traveled at speeds up to 187
: mph."

	It would be interesting to stand near a TGV going at full
speed to see what it sounds like. There are some in this newsgroup
who've had that experience and noticed not much sound at all.

:    Vranich, who on April 12, 1988, briefed Southwest Airlines
: Chairman Herb Kelleher on how to lobby for more aviation subsidies,
: sharply criticized Southwest for spreading false claims about the
: safety record for highspeed rail.

	He actually _did_ that? Is he embarrassed about it?

:    "In the last 28 years, Japanese, French and German high-speed
: trains have carried more than 3 billion passengers without a single
: passenger fatality," he said.  "If we made transportation decisions
: based on safety alone, Texas would have high-speed rail up and
: running."

	Not quite correct. A truck once fell onto a Bullet Train line,
causing some deaths. And a terrorist bomb once blew up in a TGV car.
But aside from that, Vranich is essentially correct.

:    He outlined the trend of many leaders in aviation, who have begun
: to support high-speed rail as an attractive way to relieve airport
: congestion and as an alternative to flying expensive jets in
: short-haul markets.  Lufthansa and Alitalia airlines operate trains
: in Germany and Italy, and a British airline is considering a similar
: program.

	It would be interesting to see how much of the short-haul
flights the trains are equivalent to, what fraction of the total.

:    Both USAir and Federal Express top executives have spoken in favor
: of high-speed rail, as have airport managers in Orlando, Los Angeles,
: Pittsburgh and New York.  In fact, Vranich noted that Southwest
: Airlines' former president, Howard Putnam, believes the carrier
: should be cooperating with, not opposing, the proposed Texas rail
: system.

	It is interesting that the airline officials the most
interested in high-speed rail are those in airlines with a lot of
long-distance business. I guess they feel that they have less to lose
by shifting a lot of their shorter-distance business over to rail. And
they would certainly gain in airport access by increasing passenger
rail service to airports.

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