SAVING THE LONG-DISTANCE TRAINS

[daveklepper]

1. Always carry a standard looseleaf notebook with plenty of paper. Interview all passengers that you have time for and that want to save the train they are riding. Name, address or at least the town or neighborhood, citizen of USA or what country, occupation, age, nature of trip (business, vacation, etc) and what would they do if the train were not available (would they make the trip? or what mode would they use?) any other questions that seem appropriate. Volunteers can be railfan passengers as well as Amtrak employees, but any Amtrak employee must do this on spare time. This must NOT be an Amtrak effort!

2. This should be a month's project. At the end there should be one person who should edit all this material into a proper report form and possibly do some mathematical analysis with pie charts and so forth. I am qualified to do the job, but I live in Jerusalem (studying to be a Rabbi and Cantor), and mail takes a week on the average, costs a lot more than local USA postage, and these will be written, not email notebook pages. There are a number of you who are qualified, and you can respond with your email address, and then the one selected can be contacted by email when the field volunteers have their interview sheets done, and the response can then be the editor's mail address, so the field volunteers can send him/her the sheets. In addition to the long-distance mail problem, I don't really have much of an office to do the work right now, since I am simply using the Yeshiva's library as an office, always stopping what I am doing when there is a class in the library. So a USA resident/citizen/taxpayer/voter volunteer is necessary. (I'd even prefer that the editor identify as a Republican for obvious reasons, and a Conservative Republican at that!)

3. People who have money to spend, and want to do some preservation work, should start an "Adopt an Amtrak railcar" project. If David Gunn approves the idea, and possibly the Board of Directors, anyone wishing to preserve a damaged car now at Beech Grove, should get a careful estimate of the repair costs, donate the money to Amtrak (with some kind of charity fund for rail research and preservation handling the money to try for tax-deductable status), and then Amtrak can repair the car. The car obviously has to remain in Amtrak's ownership. But the doner does get the special privilege of inspecting his investment anytime he wants in any way that does not interfere with revenue passenger operation and fare collection. Which means that on a full train, if the owner knows "his" car is going from where he is to a destination he wants, he can still ride, but has to stand. But if the car isn't sold out, he has an economy room or a coach seat to enjoy. For lounge and dining cars, the same rule applies in that he can sit down as long as a revenue passenger or member of the train crew doesn't need or want the space. He does pay for meals and drinks, of course.

i believe that long distance passenger trains are essential to the security and national interest. I believe the major reform Amtrak needs is decent funding.

[jsoderq]

If the politicians in Washington can't save amtrak you are certainly not going to do it with a notebook.

[daveklepper]

You are right. One notebook won't do it! But maybe 500 traveler-railfans and off-duty Amtrak emplooyees with notebooks totaling maybe 10,000 brief interviews then analyzed for content may give those politicians who favor retention of Amtrak long distance service some facts to back up their efforts. Try and be a little more constructive with your comments, OK? Maybe you have a better idea?

This is a thread for people who want to save long-distance service. If anyone wants to comment in reverse, can you please start your own thread? Thanks and we won't interfere with your thread.