A big improvement would be to sell off lines to local interests and run them as lines for profit. Kick the gov’t guidance out and let the market decide which lines will work and which won’t.
Since states will control the funds.Get back it ain’t going to happen now.
A one way trip from Minneapolis to Boston costs approx. 380$... Unless I want a small sleeping cabin about the size of my linen closet. That’s an additional 650$ for only one short leg of the trip. The trip, of course, is a mere *28* hours long with hours-long stopovers in Chicago and New York. How far would 1000$ get me on an airplane? A hell of a lot farther than Boston, that’s for sure.
Why on Earth would anyone use Amtrak for anything other than a creative way to blow time and money?
APf
“Businessman Dave Shreiner, 63, typically boards around 1:30 a.m. at a tiny Amtrak stop in Alliance, Ohio. He travels exclusively by rail half of the year, visiting clients around the U.S.”
...wow...calling on accounts using the train...that’s really old school...like guys used to do back in the 40s and 50s before the interstate hiway system...and btw, in some cities there are still hotels next to the old train stations...back in the day, they did a lot of business with commercial travelers.
Just out of curiosity, I looked at an AMTRAK vacation. I could buy airfare and hotel for a week in Europe or a 5 day cruise for what the AMTRAK fare alone would cost to go most anywhere. The prospect of having to leave or return at 3 am made the deal even less attractive. It’s too bad as when I was a kid my family took several train vacations when there was still top notch rail service and the experience was memorable.
???
He travels all across the US, for six months of the year -- and he "typically" boards at 1:30 AM in Alliance, Ohio? That makes no sense.
Paris and Madrid and New York and Chicago are almost exactly the same distance apart (about 780 miles). A nice little research project would be to compare train trips for these two locations comparing
- cost
- time
- frequency
- reliability (on time arrivals)
Then factor in a fudge factor for how nice the trip would be - how good is the food, how clean are the trains, how safe you would feel making the trip etc. etc.
My guess is that the results would be quite dramatic i.e. dramatically different.
I have a 1 ton diesel truck, a luxury fifth-wheel trailer and freedom of choice/movement.
Why should I give that up in exchange for your liberal-socialist illusion of utopia?
I know AMTRAK offers free WIFI; but I really don’t want to sit in a cattle car next to a pervert downloading porn.