A couple of years ago...I did my first ever Amtrak trip...DC to Birmingham. I was a bit shocked over the cost of the ticket (includes the cabin)...but I did this on Sunday when the rate was about 70-percent of the norm.
The ticket included dinner...which was acceptable but nothing to brag about. After the whole thing ended, I got out at the Birmingham train station which is a dilapidated old station. That was my one and only trip with Amtrak. I won’t repeat it. If the Fed is helping to carrying their budget....there is something wrong with the system.
NE pols like to use Amtrak’s NE corridor. That’s the only damn reason that bloody boondoggle exists. Check out the schedules for trains in and out of Chicago. Some of them are in the middle of the night. Who the heck wants to use an Amtrak station in Chicago in the middle of the night?! This isn’t about efficient, competitive, affordable train transpo. It’s about the bloody pols.
"budget" = salaries and benefits, salaries and benefits.
If the Fed is helping to carrying their budget....there is something wrong with the system.
(((
We were just talking about this recently. I would love to see train travel that is operated with market competition.
Similar story... I took my kids to New York a few years back and we decided to try the train. Left Atlanta at about 7:00 PM, stopped at every town along the way and arrived in New York the next day around 3:00 PM. We had a sleeper car and ate three meals in the diner. I will never ride Amtrak again. It was a long trip due to all of the stops. The track is in terrible condition in some areas, I thought we were going to derail a few times! Food was edible but I think Macdonalds would have been an improvement.
Trump could cut more government grants. The new rail system in Austin, TX is ridiculous. “System” is their word for a single line running north and south from north of the city to downtown. Nothing east, west or south of downtown. An hour just to get to downtown?!? It take two to three times longer to get to the end of the line and then you still have to catch a bus or taxi to get you to your destination. In the evenings, you see empty cars. They just bought more cars from Sweden but claim they must test them for THREE YEARS before they go into service. But it makes the treehuggers happy and that’s all that matters.