In the interest of full disclosure, I edited this piece with Dr. Runte (“RUNT-ee”). I’ve known Al for a decade. He was a professor of history at the University of Washington before they pushed him out for refusing to be politically correct. He’s the author of books on the national parks and the role the railroads played in creating and nurturing them. The two books mentioned in this article are among those he has written.
I long suspected that the creation of Amtrak was a policy mistake. In 2001, I began working on paradigms by which Amtrak could be zeroed out and the passenger trains returned to the freight railroads in such a way that they could make a profit. I came up with four proposals over 17 years. The second proposal had enough promise that a former chairman of the Federal Railroad Administration permitted me to present it at a symposium in 2005 at the Rayburn Building in DC – only to have it crushed by the Norfolk Southern and the United Transportation Union.
Al disposed of my fourth proposal, based on outsourcing, last year, saying, “The unions will never allow your outsourced train to leave the station.” So I encouraged Al to write this article.
This is made all the more depressing when you see how glorious the trains and railway systems are in other countries, even those which are supposedly a lot more behind than ours in other ways.
And most depressing if you live in Los Angeles and the infrastructure of EVERYTHING is going to *beep* and the streets are becoming de-facto open-air refugee camps with all the homelessness that’s quadrupled.
the empire builder runs through the least populated part of Montana. For years advocates have called for it to run the southern route Billings-Bozeman-Helena-Missoula but to deaf ears
Great post and a great read, especially the historical details that got us where we are today. The bologna being served up as prime rib by the current AMTK leadership is even more appalling than the story allows in the allegory of the German traveler. Throw in the dining service cuts (boxed lunch anyone??) and the entire house of cards collapses of its own weight. Special thanks for exposing the total BS on the NEC being “profitable” as so much humbug.
From the article: “A train to Grand Canyon? Actually, we deserve three — one every morning, afternoon, and evening. And that’s another thing about Amtrak — often its only train arrives in the dead of night.”
I’ve looked at a few train trips. Problem is there is only one train. You want to see the scenery? How do you do that when the train travels through there at night? How about leaving the train when it gets into a town in the evening, spend the night in a hotel, get on another train in the morning to continue the journey? Can’t do that. All the trains are on the same schedule.
All good fun, but the minute they dumped everything west of Chicago, Amtrak ceases to be a national system funded for everyone. Change it into a system where the whole country funds Transportation infrastructure for the Northeast Corridor, and Western senators and Congressmen have zero reason to vote for it.
This one item tells you everything you need to know about the demise of the passenger railroad industry. It's a dying industry that is being propped up by a disappearing group of aging passionate advocates.
The author misses the point completely. Congress isn't killing intercity passenger rail. The airline industry already did that. Amtrak's last hope is to take advantage of the dysfunction in the airline industry and focus its efforts on capturing passengers who are sick of airline travel -- especially for intermediate-length trips between major cities.
Does this involve the Autotrain?
As a railfan, I’d love to see more passenger trains. I know FReepers will hate it, but when Tampa has worse train service than Burlington VT, something’s wrong. I’d love to see the Sunset Limited to Orlando. A Chicago to Florida train. A New York to Maine train and New York to St. Louis train.
I love train travel, but it is so limited as far as destinations are concerned.
We recently took a vacation in New Orleans. My mother and sister came by train because my mother does not want to fly ever again. We would like to treat my mother to a trip to Yellowstone, but there seems to be no train service there.
There is no cost savings of taking the train vs. flying. I suppose there would be if we traveled coach, but that would be very uncomfortable for a trip lasting several days.
I would like to see Amtrak restructured so that it can be profitable. I also would like to see the dining service stay. The chefs on board are awesome.
Well, just as long as they don’t use a wood burner in one of the longer tunnels that are meant for Diesel...
These should all be STATE Parks....and half the size.
My state and county Marin are ALL about trains
Here in Marin Sonoma they built the SMART train
hundred million tearing up San Francisco Blvd.
holds like 50 people Gereslly half full
Cause 19th century technology is smart don’t cha know
Oh and I know. Bullet trains. Bullet. Train.
Uh huh
Ummmmmm
You go ahead and go 160 mph in earthquake country
I’ll take a flight or drive. Thanks.
When we were looking in to traveling on Amtrak I did a lot of research. We ruled it out after learning how “white folk” are treated on the trains. A great number of travelers have said Amtrak is simply a “make-work program” for blacks. There are stories of conductors forcing whites out of their reserved seats so blacks can sit there. White ladies have been forced off trains at un-manned depots in the middle of night, in the middle of nowhere.
We would absolutely love to experience train travel — but not under the current conditions.
If the U.S. is to regain a viable passenger rail service, passenger trains must make money, must offer something air travel doesn’t (hint, roomier seating, not being pawed by TSA, and bring back real dinning cars) and provide clean cars helpful service, and reasonably on time schedules. I don’t have the answers but I would love to eschew air travel and tour the country by rail. However, in the current environment I don’t see it happening.
Of all the money my government spends or wastes money on, Amtrack aggravates me the least. I know it doesn’t come close to paying for itself today. But if we abandon rails now and lose the entire infrastructure, we’ll never be able to put it back together in 30 years or so.
There are lots of reasons Americans don’t routinely travel by rail today while Europeans do. They are NOT smarter or more enlightened than we are; it’s just that the history, circumstances and distances covered are significantly different.
In 1980, I took a round trip to Ann Arbor, Mich. on Amtrak, following the same route. I was with Youth for Reagan, and we were on our way to the Republican National Convention in Detroit. Someone in the GOP hierarchy thought it would be wonderful to make this an old-fashioned "whistle stop" campaign trip, but we quickly discovered what it was like to ride on a socialist railroad.
We were heading across the Midwest during the hottest heatwave since 1936, yet the air conditioning failed--and the windows couldn't be opened. So everyone drank beer to stay cool, and the train soon ran out.
When told the train would be stopping for about a half hour at La Junta, many of us realized that would be a good opportunity to find a local liquor store and get some more beer. So we quickly found a store about a block from the station and mobbed it--and I was one of the first in line.
When we got to Ann Arbor, we were 14 hours late, and we returned to Los Angeles 12 hours late. I vowed never again to ride on Amtrak, and I never have to this day.
I’ve taken the steam train from Williams to the rim. We were “robbed” on the way back. I have pictures of my kids, arms up, holding their favorite Thomas the Tank Engines. If you want to bring back passenger trains, you have to make the journey as good as the destination.
Is the Trans-Canadian having this problem?
Amtrack management does not want to turn a profit. They have problems with how they account for everything, apparently due to the way their accounting rules work it cost less to sell a seat for a single trip from New Orleans to Chicago, than to sell the same seat three times for New Orleans to Memphis, Memphis to St. Louis, and St Louis to Chicago, even if the price for that each of those intermediate tickets was the same as the end to end ticket.
I believe that Congress and Amtrack’s Board of Governers should be given a choice, privatize Amtrack and get no further Federal monies, or spend the money over the next 10 to 20 years to creates a true national system. I believe that a true national system would have trains visiting all of the 100 largest cities (metro Areas) in the US at least 6 times daily, with a few exceptions (Amtrack will never have service to Honolulu HI, or San Juan PR, and Anchorage AK is unlikely, at best). Those 6 trains would be three high speed limiteds which only stop at larger cities and 3 slower locals that stop at every whistle stop on the route.
Note that high speed rail is not actually part of this plan, although as improvements are made to the system the limiteds may get to speed of 120+. Remember that for many countries high speed rail is a national prestige project.
See!
All you need is imagination and rail lines through rugged mountains in the SW Desert are a snap!
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