Amtrak and Express.

[Anonymous]

I thimk Amtrak SHOULD carry mail and express. The passenger airlines carry cargo in the cargo bay, long distance busses like greyhound carry packages, in the golden age of steam passenger trains and ocean liners carried express and cargo, all to increase the bottum line. Why are "passenger trains" exempt from this. It's a train, wich means it has a big capacity potential. If Amtrak sais it looses money on xpress it's just like they loose money on passengers. I say if you run a train you fill it up with whatever is going its way. (for that matter I don't see why some freights can't have passengers like ocean freight liners or mixed trains.)

[Modelcar]

....Today we've seen who has friends with money...[our money], the airlines. War budget passed and plenty of money for the airlines in it...Again.

QM

[Anonymous]

What is needed is leadership. Mr. Gunn is attempting to maintain today's passenger network. Instead, he should be advocating the future of passenger trains: high speed rail, not only for the northeast coridor, and be willing to eliminate unprofitable trans continental trains....


There are 6 trainsets operating the daily service with these transcontinentals. Killing the Empire Builder, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, and the Sunset Limited would provide 24 trainsets to provide twice the service east of the Rockies. There are many cities whose daily service is in the wee hours of the morning, having a service at a decent time of day will result in more ridership.

But this would only be for the short term. The best way to provide better service is to increase the speed of the trains considerably. For example, the Texas Eagle has four trainsets providing a daily service in each direction. Wouldn't it be nice if the 900 mile distance from Chicago to Dallas could be done in 6 hours (averaging 150 mph), instead of 22 hours? Then the one trainset could make 3 trips instead of one!

One thing is for certain. A daily train arriving at 3 am does not pick up or drop off many passengers. Speed is the answer. More service is the answer.

Frankly, today's Amtrak routes are more set up for geographical reach rather than moving paying passengers....

[cabforward]

to sum up, amtrak has no money, no friends and no friends with money..

your grade report will arrive in the mail shortly..
thank you for attending the school of life..

[Modelcar]

...And last night I tuned in on another Amtrak problem. The House Administration Sub-committee was debating the 2004 Amtrak Budget....I caught the replay on C-span that was live yesterday and, yes it kept me rivited to the TV until 2 AM. The same old problem. Political. Dem's wanted to some how negotiate and figure a way to pay the needed money and of course make adjustments where needed and Rep's want to "declare bankrupcy" [for Amtrak], and or cut what Mr. Gunn says is absolutely necessary to maintain just status quo, etc...So It's headed for nowhere....If an approach to solving this problem doesn't change one of these day Mr. Gunn will simply pull the plug by necessity and all the N E C passengers will be where...??? along with all other Amtrak passengers. He can't delay critical maintenance for ever....And the N E C [just as an example], is due for some heavy work in the near future to maintain the "higher speed operation" it does now.

QM

[Anonymous]

All I have to say is you hit the nail with the hammer. The solution is to put passenger trains on their own dedicated track, preferrably high speed. Being an Amtrak customer, I do not find the three hour delays in the ole MoPac yards of North Little Rock funny...

[Modelcar]

...It is a sad display of our railroads in this country that they can't [won't], negotiate a few Amtrak Passenger Trains...[forget the express delays because they're going away], over their territory to allow them to keep at least some semblance of a schedule. Unless a different structure for them [Amtrak], is devised they will never be more successful in what they're trying to do. We either need some teeth in the contracts between Amtrak with the railroads or divise a complete different system in this country to somehow run passenger trains..and that won't happen soon and maybe never. Perhaps in the coming years somehow if High Speed Rail gets started then we may start to move passengers at some regulated and appropriate speeds and schedules. I believe it will start someplace but when...?? Express, I don't think Amtrak will will ever get back into that since the railroads feel that is their territory and business to handle.

QM

[edblysard]

Hi Ralph,
Part of the legistation that created Amtrak, and a demand on the part of the railroads, was that Amtrak would and could not compete in the freight business. Being railroads, inheritable sneaky and suspisious of anything they can not own, control or kill, they invisioned a passenger engine, trailing 40 boxcars and one lone passenger car, pretending to be a passenger train, and "stealing" their freight business. In following true railroad tradition, they allow Amtrak to run express cars, but only if they get their cut of the profit.
And Amtrak is learning the hard way why the REA went out of business. Because railroads no longer run on a schedule, and the emphasis is on unit or bulk trains, or pre blocked freight trains, the LCL train, or mixed freight train can never arrive at the same destination at the same time consistantly, which eliminates the ability to efficently transfer your express freight to trucks for deliver to the final destination. And this also explains why Amtrak can never get to where its going when its supposed to, with the exception of the northeast corridor, Amtrak owns no track, and therefore is at the mercy of the freight railroads, who see no profit, and could care less if the passenger train ever moves a inch. If the passenger train, cant get there on time, neither can the express car.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

People seem to be saying that if you just run a train, the express will come- is that like Federal Express running a plane from say Dallas to Kansas and the express business will come- where is the infrastructure for the collection and distribution at the end points- that is a very expensive proposition to develop and Amtrak has no ca***o develop it. Third parties could have but they never saw enough business to get into it- its already a cut-throght business with UPS and all the rest acting as consolidators. Amtrak tried with larger shippers, but couldnt generate enough interest or business to pay the cost- it was a money loser- even the usps traffic has to be tailored to work and it usually doesn't. Do it where you can- leave the rest.

The other complaint we were hearing last year was about train delays for express handling- not a good PR to sit in the yard for an hour, 10 min out of Chicago while they couple up.

[Anonymous]

Bad vibes. The private railroads didn't like Amtrak running freight down their railroad lines.... While they don't mind mail so much, they did mind the beer....

[Anonymous]

Okay, Im the guy that wrote the original story of "What is a passenger train". People who wrote a reply to that say that the money is in express. Okay, why is Amtrak dropping express? If that is where the money is, they need to build on it. I wondered why Amtrak, cut the Pennsylvanian, back to Pittsburgh. Is it the new pres. position to kill Amtrak?? How about building on it? Does anyone have any ideas? I have a thought, for whats it worth. (I know,not much.) How about running all express trains from Chicago, to say Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Seperate trains. Trains could leave daily at say 5pm, run half way to their destination, meet their counterpart train and return to there starting terminal. Could a crew run 250 miles, in 5 hours? Then return to their home terminal, on the next train, or wait until the next day? Just thoughts. Build a complete express business?