There has been little progress in this area, and the bills introduced in Congress, such as Lott-Lautenberg, don’t go nearly far enough in terms of innovation. Everybody in Congress appears to be thinking inside his own little box.
A month ago I attended a conference on private sector initiatives for Amtrak’s long distance trains at the Sam Rayburn House Building in DC where I made a presentation for a privatization experiment on one train. While my presentation went over like lead balloon, I learned enough from the other presenters to fix up the concept to give it greater viability.
The UTU is certainly trying to preserve the jobs of its members, but it’s unusual to see creative thinking coming from a union. They understand that it’s five minutes before midnight for Amtrak.
Ping.
That's basically what's happening. The UAW offered concessions to GM; once GM was about 1 quarter from bankruptcy.
The UTU is at least smart enough to understand that they can't be paid if there is no demand for their service.
I would love to see the passenger/commuter train come back to rural Missouri. Our rural parts have suffered greatly since people have to commute to gainful employment to pay their taxes and mortgages in order to raise their kids in decent areas.
If they would just come up with a fuel-efficient engine and maybe municipalities each buy a passenger car. Keep the costs down to regular riders and keep our own auto insurance down.
I thought that Amtrak would never have been necessary if the freight railroads wanted anything to do with passengers anymore, and feel that passenger trains on their lines just get in the way of their freights. Am I wrong here? Let me know...
Why would a sound business model need subsidies?
Nonetheless, I've got to ask: Aside from the NE corridor, what market is there for long-haul passenger service?
Why is there any need at all to keep Amtrak operating, in any form?
Why anyone in their right mind would want to buy Amtrak?
"Amtrak represents just .007 percent of all daily commuter work trips and just 0.4 percent of all passengers making intercity trips.
Amtrak's typical riders are not low-income Americans. Only 13 percent have incomes below $20,000.
Amtrak has virtually no impact on reducing traffic congestion, pollution, or energy use. Even a doubling of train ridership would reduce energy consumption and traffic congestion by less than 0.1 percent.
Amtrak is by far the most highly subsidized form of intercity transportation. The average taxpayer subsidy per Amtrak rider is $100, or 40 percent of the total per-passenger cost. On some of the long-distance routes, such as New York to Los Angeles, the taxpayer subsidy per passenger exceeds $1,000. It would be cheaper for taxpayers to close down expensive lines and purchase discount round-trip airfare for all the Amtrak riders."
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-266.html
Taking the train has all the speed and comfort of taking the bus with the expense of taking a plane.
I would like to see passenger train service come back to the private sector. I can remember a couple of trips when I was a kid and it was great fun. I tried it about 12 years ago for nostalgia's sake on Amtrack. What a difference. Everybody was rude. The trip was to be endured, not enjoyed. In the old days, one could actually dine in the dining car, not so with Amtrack. To this day, I can still remember the fine aroma from the dining cars from years gone by
As far as I'm concerned, this is a red-herring proposal that's intended to kill passenger rail altogether. Oh, there may be some routes that survive (such as the commuter service for NYC and the NE corridor). But in general, the freight carriers have absolutely no interest in developing passenger service.
Heck, they don't even have any interest in maintaining/developing domestic FREIGHT service. They're too busy abandoning thousands of miles of local rail, focusing strictly on transnational "intermodal" freight on the main lines. And that is incompatible with passenger service: too many freight trains traveling too slow to offer competitive high-speed passenger service.
I am not opposed to privatization of Amtrak to provide better operating efficiencies. But I would prefer a model that more resembles our Interstate Highway system, or our airport/air traffic control system. Let government own/maintain the rail infrastructure. Let private enterprise own/operate the vehicles that travel on it.
Yep... just as I said...
The freight lines want to push passengers off the rails altogether.
Pi$$ on 'em.