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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard Sounds like a Socialist-Clintonista, with severe Pavlovian leanings.... As for Amtrak...in my opinion, I wouldn’t blink an eye at Amtrak becoming a complete ward of the Feds...in fact, I think they should take it over, and run it like a public works project. I doubt there is an adult here who seriously thinks a passenger train, outside of the NEC, can make enough profit to be self sufficient. From what I have read, and the opinions of a few friends who were there, even back in the heyday or the Golden Years, the only railroad that consistently made money on their passenger service was Santa Fe, and only because they served a clearly cut, dedicated market, and employed people who loved, and I mean loved, their jobs. Compare them to, say, Southwest Airlines. They do the same thing; serve a small, dedicated market with a vengence. They don’t offer anything beyond a seat, a soft drink and a bag of almonds, and the promise to get you there, when you want to get there, on time, and consistently. Miss the 12:05 to Salt Lake? No sweat, there is a 2:05 flight also...in fact; they fly more planes to their system points than anyone else, except UPS and FedEx... Take away the myth that Amtrak can ever be profitable, it can’t. Give real power to the guys running it... Let them take a hard look at the population centers that need train service. Give them the power of the Feds to seriously put the screws to any freight railroad that doesn’t clear a path for their trains, and reward handsomely those that do. Get the Class 1s on the carpet; tell them that we are going to upgrade the routes the Feds want, from piddley 45 mph lines to 90mph drag strips, in exchange for their willingness to get out of the way. Fine the crap out of them, and the dispatcher that doesn’t. Better yet, make the dispatchers on those dedicated routes/lines Feds... Sounds like I want to make it a public utility? You bet. Why? Because I sit here and watch while the feds pay upwards of 20 billion dollars to turn a 20 mile stretch of I 10, the Katy Freeway, from a 4 lane each way overcrowded freeway into a super freeway, with eight lanes each way...and by the time they finish, in 2008, it will be too small! They are building a super freeway to funnel all these autos into a downtown/ loop system that can’t handle the traffic that exists today. No one bats an eye at that expense, in fact, you expect your government to build and maintain the interstate, for your use. Do the folks in Nebraska complain about the cost of the Katy freeway expansion? I doubt they even know about it. (Well, maybe Mookie knows, but Mookies knows everything!) You don’t hear too many gripes about the NEC from down here in the swamp... And I am pretty sure the people who ride it every day don’t miss a minute’s sleep worrying about where the funding for it comes from. But remove it, and watch the fireworks start! Not a one of us really complains about NASA, which is the most un-profitable venture you could imagine, and no one expect it to ever make money, but we all "profit" from the things it does. New medicines, new research tools, weather prediction, cell phone tech...The list goes on and on, but hard cash back? Not a dime! The TVA...ever hear some one who get their electricity from the dams gripe that the government spent money on that? Or complain about the feds changing out a turbine or running new power lines? Nope...it’s expected... So, as soon as you, me, and everyone else we can convince gets the idea that a national passenger rail system should make money out of our heads, and start to view it as a public service/utility, we can make it work. Tell the people you elected this last time around you don’t care if it makes a dime, you want the service. If they can spend a few million dollars on warthog mating habit research or a hundred million on saving the snail darter fish....they can figure out how to fund and run a passenger train from Chicago to LA on time, at a cost to the user, (you) that is affordable. Tell your representatives that if they can’t figure it out, you plan on electing someone who can. They understand votes more than anything else. Ed [/quote] Bravo! Now, perhaps we could get a private concern to run the food, beverage, and sleeping and parlor service on the trains, and leave the train running to the feds. that way we won't have diners that resemble a mess tent. Mitch
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