What happened to proposed Amtrak lines. - General Discussion (Trains.com) - Trains.com

Based on over 25 years experience in dealing with them:

1. Wish list, but no $$

2. Pacify passenger rail advocates in the short term by promising a route

3. Short term political payoffs (and they can claim they tried and then blame someone else when they don't get the$$ from whatever source)

4. In a few extremely rare cases, railroad backs out or impedes, or local $$ dries up

They did sort of run to Madison, primarily to pacify Tommy Thompson, who was Board Chairman at the time. It was a disaster, as predicted by many informed advocates and professionals. One contributing factor was the very low speed limit on the short line RR and no direct access to the market (they never actually made it to Madison). Louisville is the same problem, but don't expect them to be running to Congress at breakneck speed for a supplemental appropriation to fix that track to make the service viable, either, even though they've talked about it.

Unless there is a short term political advantage in it for them, ATK's historical practice outside the NEC spine (where they have been more than happy to run empty express Metroliners, etc. and spend small fortunes on image advertising) has been to attempt to hold up the states for operating and capital subsidies, including on in most cases their ONE (count it) legitimate interstate train, some of which are on the Congressionally-mandated original national network. Taken to the most basic concepts, the TX Eagle, for example, still runs essentially for 2 reasons: (1) Kay Bailey Hutchinson (who is a friend to ATK and, coincidentally, through her Senate chairmanship has a lot of control over the $$) and (2) when they threatened to pull the train the last time and tried to hold up the State of TX for subsidies, which the state could not legally provide even if it had wanted to, they made the state loan them the money or the train was going to come off. This for a service that was Congressionally mandated and had been held back by ATK every chance it got. Ever wonder why ATK has not implemented the highly successful grass-roots marketing and space control program on the TX Eagle on any other major national system route???????

Other examples from our end of the world: When TxDOT funded the first full-service intermodal in the state in the early 1990's and handed ATK a full-blown connecting intercity bus hub with new 24 hour rail pax facilities including 600+' of concrete 8" TOR platform in a brand new 2 million dollar facility at, of all places, Del Rio on the Mexican Border on the Sunset Route, they couldn't even be coaxed to change the station's address in the timetables, much less identify the bus connections to much of West Texas (with little or no competing air service to anywhere) and access to Mexico available on-site with a manned bus agency etc.(even after being sent the specific route and timetable information several times), or even note that the facility had accessible indoor facilities, or there was the presence of a pro-active travel agent selling Amtrak tickets before the Internet. They still won't acknowledge the bus connections. For years San Antonio tried to get them to rebuild an existing track connection between the MKT and the SP East Yard for about $1-2 million that would have given them direct, non-circuitous access to Sunset Station, eliminate the long backup move on 21/22, and cut about 45 minutes circling downtown San Antonio on yard and branch line trackage off the schedule. They found every reason in the world why they couldn't--meanwhile they were cheerfully flushing millions down the New England Metroliner fiasco. By the way, that track is pulled up, now. Ever wonder why 21/22 takes that long, circuitous empty route south of FTW through the middle of nowhere instead of running in the corridor? Would it surprise any of you to know that, when Congress investigated them, they found that they had taken the money Congress had specifically earmarked to fix the tracks on the direct route when they mandated the train, and where the RR actually wanted them (what a concept), and spent it on other projects primarily in the NEC?? This kind of stuff is not unique and is representative of their normal historical behavior regarding the hinterlands. Look at your own lack of service, if you live anywhere off the spine, and that includes Chicago and California (where CalTrans has been taking up the slack heroically and pushing Washington for years--ATK West has been largely proactive, but has had its hands tied a lot, particularly on occasion where they are successful on a "not invented here" project). Uneconomical national system trains the reason?? Probably so, when, for example, they have been caught charging AEM-7's and Metroliner-converted Amcans to the Starlight's operating account (long extension cords, maybe??). Compare the Builder's revenue with the NEC, where it historically regularly outstripped all the Metroliners combined, and a different story emerges, but little or no improvement to the route.

So why not promise a new route out west (of the Appalachians) and then let it dry up for whatever reason? It'll be forgotten by the politicians in no time.

Lots of other stuff, but it would take a substantial history tutorial.

Hate to sound cynical or like I'm ranting and raving. I'm not. Everything up above is entirely factual and based on direct experience dealing with them. I hope Gunn can reverse this mindset. And, by the way, the next time you try the train, hungry? Please enjoy your nice, hot breakfast out of SAS on #22, especially when you're connecting from #2. Oh? What do you mean, there isn't one?? But there's a diner. What do you mean there's no crew or hot meal service until we get to FTW in the middle of the afternoon??