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The 20th century and Broadway.
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This is the whole problem with the product offered. Years ago there would be the "flagship" train. Take the PRR for instance. First there'd be the Broadway. All PULLMAN, extra fare, fastest and most convenient schedule, special cuisine, master drawing rooms with showers, and a barber shop. Then there'd be the second best like the General. All PULLMAN, different schedule, no extra fare. Then there'd be the all-coach flagship, like the "Trailblazer." Fast schedule, good coaches, great dinig car, a lounge, and an observation lounge. Then there'd be the secondary trains. Mixed consists of coach and PULLMAN with slow schedules. Now that was a product. If Amtrak had a 1940s product then we wouldn't be having this discussion. For you kids out there too young to remember, Amtrak, started in the Nixon era, was to get rid of passenger trains in 3 years or so, gracefully, and get the railroads out from under the passenger train yoke. But the joke was on them. People actually showed up at the depot to ride. For a while there was a time of optimism that the thing would turn out OK. But after cuts at the end of '79, the whole thing started to come unravelled. <br />As for advertising they started right off the bat with the "Tracks are Back" campaign. Then there was "All ABoard Amtrak," followed by "Everyone is getting Into Training." But if we have eastward train departures out of Chicago geared to the arrival of mostly late west coast connections and run at the speed of sludge for an iffy late afternoon arrival in the east, then there really is no product at all. I remember once when I was the flagman on no. 9 out of Chicago in 1974. The dining car steward discovered at almost departure time that ketchup had not been loaded. We held no 9 17 minutes for ketchup.The worst thing to happen was the divorce between the freight railroads and their most identifiable herald, the passenger train. Wouldn't a simple subsidy have worked? <br />Mitch
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