Posted on 05/13/2015 12:22:18 PM PDT by Publius
Thirty-nine minutes into his southbound ride from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington, DC, Joseph H. Boardman, president and CEO of Amtrak, begins to cry. We're in the dining car of a train called the Silver Star, surrounded by people eating hamburgers. The Silver Star runs from New York City to Miami in 31 hours, or five more hours than the route took in 1958, which is when our dining car was built. Boardman and I have been discussing the unfortunate fact that 45 years since its inception, the company he oversees remains a poorly funded, largely neglected ward of the state, unable to fully control its own finances or make its own decisions. I ask him, "Is this a frustrating job?"
"I guess it could be, and there are times it is," he says. "No question about that. But—" His voice begins to catch. "Sixty-six years old, I've spent my life doing this. I talked to my 80-year-old aunt this weekend, who said, 'Joe, just keep working.' Because I think about retirement." Boardman is a Republican who formerly ran the Federal Railroad Administration and was New York state's transportation commissioner; he has a bushy white mustache and an aw-shucks smile. "We've done good things," he continues. "We haven't done everything right, and I don't make all of the right decisions, and, yes, I get frustrated. But you have to stay up." A tear crawls down his left cheek.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
Same reason we just can’t have other nice things - liberals.
Willie Green is that you?
No. I’ve been here far longer than Willie.
Obviously because the republikkrats want the trains to crash killing poor folks. Thus, they wish to further defund amtrak.
America does. It is called the Gravy Train.
Teens.
Our trains run far slower and to far fewer cities and towns now than they ran in the 1920s!
the answer is because there aren’t enough Americans that want to ride trains and trains don’t go where Americans need to go.
When you turn our transportation system into a unionized jobs program, quality goes out the window.
That’s pretty much the reason.
Same reason we just can’t have other nice things - liberals.
Even worse than that is liberals in government.
Privatize AmTrak. That’ll fix things up real quick.
Exactly right.
The railroad employees around here have a better retirement and perks than anyone that works for the government or other private industry. The bigger the number of employees on the retirement dole, the less efficient the company or utility is.
We have the finest cargo train capacity in the world. Our passenger trains, however, are not up to par. We simply drive here, and there are various other reasons they ‘compromise’ advancements in passenger train capacity: private property, etc.
There isn't enough demand for train travel to allow Amtrack to make it as a private corporation.
And with such privatization, bust the unions! Totally!
First part false, second part mostly true because of government.
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