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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by artmark Streamliners failed not by their quality but because they went out of fashion. Part of that image thing I discussed. When the airlines came out with free meals and pretty girls to serve them, you know right where the business guys went. They abandoned the old, sometimes cranky men in favor of the then new mode. It is a differnt world now. A 16 hour trip versus a 24 hour, poorly timed trip with all the amenities would sell if handled correctly. Mitch [/quote] The PRRs Broadway died running a 16 hour businessman's schedule. How would recreating the 1950 Broadway work now when it didn't work then? It wasn't the stewardess that got business traveller to fly. It was the extra nights they got to spend at home, flying in the morning an evenings instead of trying to sleep in a roomette. The PRR and NYC (and others) tried mightily to hang on to business travellers. They even tried to shave another 30 minutes off their schedules for a while, but by the mid 50s, the game was over. [/quote] Let's talk a few moments about the extra night sleep at the end of a business day in New York. First and foremost. In my father's post war era, most decisions were based on being modern. My fathers group was getting over the Great Depression, and the trauma of WWII. We were moving into the jet age and the space age in the '50s. We were moving into suburbia, and Heffner said it was OK to look at things in a glossy magazine that heretofore was unthinkable. They were going to be junior executives with a new slant. Disney predicted the future with superhighways where one wouldn't even have to steer their car. You wouldn't catch James Bond on the Limited, and you wouldn't see the President of the United States on one either. Movies had shown people on trips with clips of trains going by. Now it would be clips of TWA 707s landing and Zsa Zsa Gabore stepping off with a pink poodle, getting into a Cadillac. So you have to be at a meeting in New York City at 11.30 am and you want to fly. It's 1950 and you've booked passage on American Airlines flight 14, "The American Brigadier," due out of Chicago's Midway Airport at 7.00am. You have to be at the airport around 6.30 am to get your tickets and board. Since a trip to the airport involved local streets and Boulevards it takes an hour to get there. You have to leave the house by 5.30am. So you're up at 5am. You had to get to bed early that night and couldn't really sleep because you had to get up early for the flight, and you couldn't afford to oversleep. Flight 14 arrives at LaGuardia at 10.55am if it's on time. Thirty-five minutes is all youhave to make the meeting in Manhattan. On the way back you take flight 21, "The American Commodore." Your client stops talking by 3pm so you can get a cab to the airport. The flight arrives back at MDW at 7.15pm. You're in the door at 8.15pm at home. Pheh. Eight hours of travel in one day for a 4 hour meeting. But we did it because it was new and exciting. We didn't do it if MDW wassnowbound or enshrouded in snow. Let's look at 1957. The Boeing 707 is making its first appearance shaving half the air time off the trip. The recession of that year plus the 707 drove the businessman off the trains enmass. Of course you'll fly. If you go to the depot you see nothing but old stuff, and you have to pay for your meals. There's nothing but other men and old folk on the train. Out the window is nothing but steel mills. Now for today. First. The 707 and the "Supersonic Transport" are on their way to museums, and it's sometimes tough to book a room on a poor train, let alone a great one. I'm not looking for all the business travel today, just a share. There's people out there that want a good train experience, and a good night on a good train is not beyond their thinking. Business people are different. It's not just the man in the grey flannel suit who looks like Mell Cooley. It's young, vibrant people who are a lot more sociable, cross gender, et al. So for business or just travel a "1950" type of Century service would be welcomed if handled correctly. In the '70s, the Broadway was fun, close to on-time, and had a somewhat reasonable schedule until '76. I used it a lot on semi-monthly trips to NYC. I've found recently that on-board Amtrak people are genuine and decent. I've also found that airline people of today are cranky and much like the old railroad folks of years ago. Now you'll have to buy your meal on the plane, and it's free to sleeping car passengers on the train. Prospective, repeat rail passengers are out there if only they got a variety of good services to choose from. Repeat business is the key. Don't forget, nowadays you can spend your night on a cot in the airport. Mitch
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