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Amtrak must be overhauled or junked, Secretary Mineta says
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by oltmannd</i> <br /><br />[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by jwieczorek</i> <br /><br />Although no one asked, this is my plan for a "new Amtrak". Trains should be ONLY long distance. For example, The Capitol Limited leaves Chicago, stops ONLY at Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Washington. Wasn't that what "limited" meant, anyhow? All the intermediate stops can be operated by individual states or a consortium of states. Another example, the Empire Builder. Leaves Chicago, stops in Milwaukee, St. Paul, Fargo, Havre, Sandpoint, Spokane, and Seattle. Again, intermediate stops can be operated by teh states they serve. I have ridden both trains quite often, and have noticed that several stops (especially on the Cap. are also served by commuter agencies. This is an unncessary duplication of services. <br /> <br />This may relieve Amtrak of running short distance trains to connect with the LD trains. As of now, all short distance trains are scheduled to meet in chicago for connections to LD trains. The dream is to free up capital to purchase more LD cars, for greater frequency, and esaier connections at more major cities than Chicago. I'm sure there are many, many flaws to this plan, but al that is missing is the political will to do this. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Uh, airplanes do the major city to major city thing a whole lot better and cheaper than Amtrak can. Where the LD trains are sucessful is when they connect those little places you want to skip (what, to save 30 minutes on a 24 hour schedule?) with the big cities. For example, the Crescent does great business between the Northeast (including Alexandria and Manassas) and Charlotteville. You want to skip Alexandria or Manassas? <br /> <br />Speeding up equipment turns is a great idea, but skipping some stops won't do it. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Hmmm. The airlines used to do the job better, perhaps. Now it seems more of a dead heat in the post 9-11 world. For example, not too long ago I saw a friend at an industry meeting in Florida. I was flying home and he was taking Amtrak. His train (Silver Meteor, I think) would land him home by the following morning. My flight was scheduled to be in before midnight (including a change at Atlanta). <br /> <br />As it turned out my flight suffered a 45 minute weather related delay (fog in ATL) resulting in my missing the connection by a few minutes and being consigned to an Atlanta airport area hotel overnight. Given the flight cutbacks post 9-11, the next available flight to my destination did not LEAVE Atlanta until 3pm on that second day, getting me home after 7pm. Who got the better deal that time? Next time I will be on the train to that meeting which I attend annually, provided of course that there still is a train to take... <br /> <br />LC
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