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A few notes...For those that say that buses (passenger trucks) are more modern than trains, I think coaches were around before there were trains. They just figured out a way to haul several coaches hitched together and put them on a fixed guideway and called it a passenger train. Besides, air travel is from the last century as well. So why does this "reverse seniority" come in to play in these discussions? I think that the word "bus" is short for Omnibus, the name of a fellow that started a coach line in New York. A bus (passenger truck) is a stage coach not hauled by horses. Service by Amtrak to small towns...The service is no good to anyone if there's only one train a day at 3.05 am and it doesn't go where you want it to. A nationwide passenger train service should be funded to the extent it could serve many small towns many times a day. But then there's the problem of rail overcrowding, and reluctance of Class 1 railroads to put up with this. I've had a few discussions of late with my rail oriented friends concerning the fate of Amtrak (Tracks are Back, America's First Nationwide Passenger rail Service, America's Getting into Training, All Aboard Amtrak et al ad nausium) and we've come to the conclusion that perhaps the corporate structure should be dismantled, but not the service. I feel that years ago at the foundation of Amtrak, the corporate structure was set on a course of dismantlement, and failure. No Amtrak administration that followed the first has ever been able to overcome this. Over the last 34 years the knowledge, and more importantly the will to operate passenger trains on the part of managers has been lost. And this is not their fault by the way. It has just gone that way as it has in many other service or retail companies. Unless we could have Metra take over the whole thing, and get proper funding, things don't look good. As for high speed rail, which I support, it would take less time to stuff 6 elephants into a Volkswagon then waiting for the first line to be built. Giving passenger service back to the original carriers would have been a solution in 1974. With the government just subsidizing the service. There were enough managers left on the railroads then that not only knew how things should be done, but could supervise the entirety of the passenger service properly. Times have changed way too much for this to ever happen again. It's what we had hoped for back in the '70s. There was, in the very beginning of Amtrak, pre rainbow era, the 7 weeks of euphoria. Passenger departments of the carriers felt that all Amtrak would be was a funding source, and joint ticket, and reservation facility. I remember early on, on the Milwaukee Road, several of the steam generator E units got fresh Milwaukee Road paint, and the Milwuakee coaches in intercity service got a nice sprucing up. I think they even ordered some new dining car china. Amtrak tickets at the time still required a coupon for travel over each operating railroad and was indicated as such on your ticket. But then came the real push for consolidation, and the Rainbow Era began. The rest is for a different thread. Mitch
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