Participating in Amtrak's Future

[CMStPnP]

So we have discussed and bantered about various changes we would like to see in Amtrak and potentially how Amtrak could improve.    In my view now would be a good time to put some of those thoughts into a formal latter to both the House Transportation Subcommittee as well as your local Congressman and mail them off.

I have to tell you from watch C-SPAN a lot of those Congress folks do not know what questions to ask and I think with some input from some Forum participants here Congress might be able to hone their questions a little tighter and get a better idea of what detailed questions to ask of Amtrak management to forge a better path for the future.

The letters may not be read by your Congressperson directly but they are read by staffers and more importantly in most cases it is the appointed staffer that meets regularly with Amtrak management anyways vs the Congressperson. 

Just as suggestion.

[JPS1]

CMStPnP

.......now would be a good time to put some of those thoughts into a formal latter to both the House Transportation Subcommittee as well as your local Congressman and mail them off. 

Good idea!  Write!  Share your views with the decision makers.  The probability that they will be taken to heart is low.  But if you don’t express them, it is a certainty you will not be heard.

 

According to two former state legislators that I know, sending a letter as opposed to an email improves the probability that your message will be read.  If it is crafted properly, with words that most people can understand, it is more likely to be read.  The Texas Legislator, who represented an El Paso District, told me that if a letter contained a lot of flowery language or lack civility, she threw it away.

 

I have had a bit of success.  I think.  In early 2005 I pointed out in a letter to David Gunn, Amtrak’s President, that the awkward backing movements of the Texas Eagle into and out of the Fort Worth station could be eliminated by running on the TRE between Fort Worth and Dallas and vice versa.  I got a letter from his office thanking me for my view.  I put in the circular file.  I figured nothing would come of it.

 

Several months later I was at Dallas Union Station on a Sunday afternoon to watch trains.  It is a good spot to see Amtrak, UP, BNSF, and DG&N trains.   I noticed a P42 and a Superliner Coach at the end of the platform.  I ask the crew what was going on.  They told me that they had just made a test run on the TRE.  I would like to think my letter was a factor.

 

In time Amtrak switched the Texas Eagle from the UP to the TRE.  Liability insurance coverage was a stumbling block.  In any case, the change happened.  Was it my letter than triggered the change?  Nope.  But it along with lots of other input may have been a factor.