Subject: RE: lunch
From: "J.Heffner" <[email-masked]>
To: "'Hunter Biden'" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "'Anne Marie Person'" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:40:45 -0500

Hunter once again thank you for lunch and for meeting with me.  I will
contact Ed Ellis about our discussion.  I would think he would be very
interested in meeting you.  I look forward to a "return lunch" with you as
my guest.  Unfortunately, time today does not permit me the leisure of
writing up any extended discussion of ideas for your lunch with Joe
Boardman.  Please allow me a month for that.  You can tell him that we have
met on several occasions.  I was the Washington attorney that he introduced
when I spoke at a SCORT meeting in Buffalo a few years ago (I want to say in
2003).

Regarding Amtrak let me just hit a few highlights for now:

.         Amtrak needs to be more aggressive in expanding its network in
terms of both frequencies on existing routes, particularly long haul routes,
adding several key new markets (notably Southwest Florida, Nashville,
Phoenix, and Las Vegas as well as more service for "underserved" existing
markets such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Minneapolis), and restoring a few
key travel corridors (Chicago to Florida for example).  A good start would
be to examine the Official Railway Guide in the months just before Amtrak
and ask the advice of an industry "expert" such as Fred Frailey or former NS
executive and early Amtrak employee Jim McClelland which trains were
"winners" and also to study the most heavily travelled airline corridors.  I
should add that there is little reason for a politician in Kansas or
Nebraska to support high speed rail in the Northeast unless there is some
reasonable chance of service to his/her district.

.         Amtrak can never make a profit by cutting service or cutting
service quality (i.e. downgrading dining car service or food, substituting
disposable plates for china, eliminating sleeping cars).  The easiest way to
improve the economics is by adding frequency and capacity and therefore
revenues faster than the associated incremental expenses.  Once a route
reaches the optimum frequency level (which for a more populous long haul
route such as Washington to Atlanta or New York-Buffalo-Chicago would be at
least twice daily, one train operating overnight with full sleeping and
dining service and a second more basic train running from dawn to dusk or
evening along the lines of the famed City of New Orleans the Illinois
Central operated.  Come to think of it Amtrak operates a very successful
train called the Palmetto that meets this test.

.         Because of higher gas prices and the diminished attractiveness of
airline service I believe that the "threshold" of attractive of rail for the
average middle and affluent rider (as opposed to those in a lower economic
spectrum) has increased from about three to five hours.  The key is that the
train must be at least auto competitive and reliable.  Amtrak must be
prepared to match discounts of airlines like Southwest and Jet Blue on
corridor routes by offering a dual level of service (one more cheaper with a
more Spartan service level and one a bit pricier with more attractive
amenities, more attractive than Amtrak now offers outside the NEC and the
West Coast).

.         Amtrak must vigorously expand Auto-Train type service, starting
initially with cars on regular passenger carrying trains; then on dedicated
trains once volume justifies.  Initial routes would likely emanate from
Chicago to Denver, Tuscon/Pheonix, Florida, and up and down the West Coast.

.         Amtrak must serve "off line" points such as Saginaw, MI, Green
Bay, WI, Rockland, ME, and Fort Myers, FL, by partnering with low cost short
line railroads in much the same way that commuter airlines have code sharing
arrangements with major carriers and short lines have with their class I
railroad connections.

Given additional time I could come up with more ideas but this represents a
good start.  John

From: Hunter Biden [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 5:04 PM
To: [email-masked]
Cc: Anne Marie Person
Subject: lunch

John,

Nice meeting you by phone.  I look forward to our lunch.  Anne Marie in my
office is cc'd here and she will provide some possible times for a meeting.
Best, Hunter.

 

Rosemont Seneca Partners

R. Hunter Biden

1010 Wisconsin Av., NW

Suite 705

Washington, D.C. 20007

202-333-1880