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Why Can't America Have Great Trains?: A Washington mystery
National Journal ^ | 18 April 2015 | Simon Van Zuylen-Wood

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Government
KEYWORDS: amtrak; rail
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To: Willie Green
I just had to ping you...

5.56mm

21 posted on 05/13/2015 12:29:42 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: mountainlion

Without gov’t power to implement their folly,
liberals are simply an odd curiosity.


22 posted on 05/13/2015 12:30:00 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Publius

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/roanokebuilt-locomotive-returns-home/32981712


23 posted on 05/13/2015 12:30:19 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Kenny Bunk
Our trains run far slower and to far fewer cities and towns now than they ran in the 1920s!

Our airlines fly much faster and to far more cities and towns than they did in the 1920s. You don't suppose there's a correlation, do you?

24 posted on 05/13/2015 12:30:24 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Kenny Bunk
That's because there was a massive tearing out of rail infrastructure in the Fifties and Sixties. Wall Street even considered getting rid of the railroads and moving all freight via the new Interstate Highway System. Then the highway system became clogged with trucks, and the railroads found a new niche concentrating on bulk goods.

Then the railroads spun off unprofitable branch lines to short line operators, and concentrated on hook-and-haul.

Today the freight railroads are all making a lot of money and are putting a lot of money into expanding their infrastructure. The latest issue of "Trains" magazine lists how much the Class I railroads are putting into capital expenditures this year. It's a lot.

25 posted on 05/13/2015 12:30:29 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: Publius

I know you have. I think Willie got the boot a couple of years ago. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a train promotion article.


26 posted on 05/13/2015 12:30:37 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: nickcarraway
<img src="http://www.3monkeysports.com/photos/items/10433_1.jpg" width=80%> Yields:


27 posted on 05/13/2015 12:31:34 PM PDT by Mycroft Holmes (The fool is always greater than the proof.)
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To: DoodleDawg

There is not enough demand for trains with average speeds of 40 miles per hour between major cities. Intercity trains of the past at least ran at average speeds of 60 mph, sometimes faster; on the so-called “Northeast Corridor”, they run at average speeds of 70 to 82 mph, but still could go faster with the right technology.

Before Amtrak was created, there was more than twice the number of trains running intercity, BTW. Regulations and taxation ate into private railroads’ bottom lines, not permitting them to compete with other modes—and this is still the case today.


28 posted on 05/13/2015 12:31:56 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: The Toll

OK, that was funny right there...


29 posted on 05/13/2015 12:31:56 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Publius

Not read the article, but when I was a kid it was said the Teamsters union was the root of the train system demise.


30 posted on 05/13/2015 12:31:58 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Freight cars seem to spend most of their time sitting around.


31 posted on 05/13/2015 12:32:05 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: DannyTN

It’s not train promotion. It’s a look into a convoluted mess.


32 posted on 05/13/2015 12:32:32 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: Publius

LOL, due to Govt involvement, next question.


33 posted on 05/13/2015 12:32:46 PM PDT by Jolla
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To: re_nortex

Interesting tidbit of railroad history: a lot of railroad companies had peaceful management-labor relations without unions, and it was actually the federal government that forced unionization in a lot of cases, especially (IINM) because of Woodrow Wilson’s USRA (railroad nationalization).


34 posted on 05/13/2015 12:33:09 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: doorgunner69

The various rail brotherhoods represent train employees. The Teamsters aren’t players in this game.


35 posted on 05/13/2015 12:33:22 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: MrB

We know why the gubmint is so into trains. They want to control where, who etc. simple.


36 posted on 05/13/2015 12:33:40 PM PDT by bicyclerepair (Ft. Lauderdale FL (zombie land). TERM LIMITS ... TERM LIMITS)
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To: bert

Amtrak’s route map is basically a star pattern out of Chicago.
To get from point A to point B, you gotta go through Chicago.


37 posted on 05/13/2015 12:33:52 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Paladin2

Classification yards are inconvenient but necessary. It’s how the cars get hooked to the correct train.


38 posted on 05/13/2015 12:34:11 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: Publius

the US Government could spend $10 Trillion on trains, and they wouldn’t work properly.


39 posted on 05/13/2015 12:34:28 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: bicyclerepair

Same reason they prefer a few big businesses to many small businesses - easier to control.


40 posted on 05/13/2015 12:34:30 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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