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[quote user="John WR"] [quote user="Sam1"]Southwest Airlines unloads and loads a 737-700 at Dallas Love Field in approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Why did it take or does it take Amtrak 20 minutes to change power at New Haven? Could it be because Amtrak is a non-competitive monopoly?  Without any imperatives to hustle?[/quote] Sam,    I think it is safe to say that Amtrak's 20 minute engine change time had nothing whatsoever to do with Amtrak being a government monopoly.  The New Haven's Merchants Limited, there crack train that took only 4 hours between Boston and New York, took 20 minutes to change engines.  The Penn Central's New York and Boston trains also took 20 minutes to change engines.   Thus Amtrak took no longer for their engine change than the two prior private railroad companies.   Of course Amtrak did make a significant improvement in time but completing the electrification project the New Haven started.   By electrifying the rails all the way up to Boston the 20 minute delay to change engines is no longer required; New Haven is simply a station stop on the line.    During the early 20th century J. P. Morgan owned a controlling interest in the New Haven.  From what I have read he ran the railroad into the ground and the road was never really able to recover from that.  That is why electrification was never completed.   The original electrification was authorized in a bill signed by Gerald Ford in 1976.  However, electrification was delayed and it was not accomplished until 1996.  I don't know the degree to which Acela was involved in the decision.    John [/quote] The central question is why did it take 20 minutes to change power in New Haven. Where is the data that it took the New Haven 20 minutes to change the power for the Merchants Limited? Part of the problem, I suspect, is neither the New Haven or Amtrak had any competitive pressures to hustle. Or a corporate climate that encourage the employees to hustle. That it took 20 minutes to change the power is a solid argument to privatize passenger rail and introduce competition into the matrix.
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