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<p>[quote user="dakotafred"]</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> <strong>Dakguy201:</strong></div> <div> <p> </p> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> <strong>Sam1:</strong></div> <div></div> <p> </p> <blockquote> <div> According to the initial schedule, Megabus will offer eight trips a day each way between Austin and Dallas and 14 trips each way per day between Austin and Houston.  The trips will be nonstop.  Accordingly, the service will not impact the number of passengers using the Eagle from the stops between the major cities that it serves, i.e. San Marcos, Temple, Longview, etc., but it is likely to draw passengers away from the train in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Little Rock</div> </blockquote> </blockquote> <p>The concept that Megabus will do the long haul nonstop while Amtrak fills in with service at intermediate points offends my sense of a properly ordered transportation system.  Oh, well, nobody said the "system" has to be entirely rational!</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <p> </p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Still, Dak, when one thinks about it ...</p> <p>The bus has (usually) the faster right of way, and is not burdened with the "all things to all people" mandate of most Amtrak routes with their single pair of trains a day.</p> <p>The surprise to me is that it took the bus companies so long to figure out and exploit their advantage. Looks like they're doing the same thing in Iowa, smothering the nascent Rock Island revival in its little cradle.</p> <p>The biggest threat to Amtrak yet? [/quote]</p> <p>Frequent, fast, convenient, comfortable, and dependable bus and discount airline services are a threat to the once a day long distance trains, especially for coach passengers.  BTW, coach passengers make up more than approximately 95 per cent of Amtrak's riders.</p> <p>Interestingly, Megabus has teamed up with the Kerrville Bus Company to expand service beyond the major cities in Texas.  It offers connecting service out of San Antonio to Del Rio and San Angelo as examples.</p> <p>Passenger trains make sense in relatively short, high density corridors where the cost to expand the highways and airways is prohibitive.  Megabus and others will have trouble competing in these corridors because of traffic congestion and volume constraints.  This is my I have argued consistently that Amtrak should drop the long distance trains and concentrate on the corridors.  </p> <p>If Amtrak or a similar operator could improve its productivity, i.e. a dynamic business leader as opposed to a seemingly timid government bureaucrat, fewer managers, and better union labor work rules, it could cover the full cost of the short corridor trains.  It could also cover the operating costs of the NEC, as well as make a significant contribution to the capital costs.  There are other structural changes that would need to happen, but it could be done.</p> <p>Alas, given the politics of transportation in the United States, it is unlikely to happen.   </p>
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