Railroads: National Asset

Among the many requests that the Interstate Commerce Commission gets from railroads anxious to discontinue unprofitable passenger service, the one it ruled on last week was aptly described as “unique.” The train that came under the commission’s scrutiny operates almost at capacity in peak seasons, remains as plushly appointed as the day it came into operation 18 years ago, and has received virtually no complaints from passengers about deteriorating service. Moreover, noted the ICC, it passes through “some of the most spectacular scenery in the country” and thus is a “national asset.” So saying, the commission ordered that service to be continued for at least one more year.

The train in question is the California Zephyr, and the petitioner was Western Pacific Railroad, one of three railroads (the others: the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Denver & Rio Grande Western) that operate the Zephyr’s 2,500-mile-long trip between Chicago and San Francisco. In turning down Western Pacific’s request to discontinue its portion of the run—from Salt Lake City to San Francisco and back—the ICC cited assets that have long enchanted Zephyr passengers.

The Vista-Domed Zephyr is so scheduled that it affords a better daylight glimpse of scenery than any other transcontinental U.S. train. The westbound passenger leaves Chicago in midafternoon, sleeps his way across the Nebraska plains, spends the next day traveling through the fir forests and deep gorges of the Colorado Rockies, sleeps the second night as the train rolls through the Nevada desert, wakes up on the final morning in California’s breathtaking Feather River Canyon. En route, the train serves good, moderately priced food in dining cars that sport vases of fresh carnations at every table. Not surprisingly, the California Zephyr has proved increasingly popular with foreign tourists and Americans alike. During all of last year, the Zephyr operated at 78% of capacity.

It bespeaks something significant about the U.S. railroad-passenger system that such a train could lose money —which it does. Western Pacific expects to drop $560,000 on the Zephyr this year, largely because of rising labor and maintenance costs. Conceding that the train “imposes a substantial economic burden on Western Pacific,” the ICC nonetheless expressed optimism that the financial picture may gradually improve. One possibility: giving Western Pacific an increased share of the revenues collected jointly by the Zephyr’s three operating railroads.