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4merroad4man and HarveyK400As I said in my first post, there are four or five barriers that would have to be overcome to implement my recommendations regarding the City of New Orleans, Eagle, Sunset and Heartland Flyer.  Clearly, I don't have access to the inside information necessary to determine if they could be overcome.  Others have made similar proposals.  However, the ones that I reviewed envisioned an expansion of the long distance train system, i.e. keep the Sunset Limited and extend the Eagle to LA as a daily train, whereas I am only advocating a change of service along most of the existing routes, i.e. daily service between New Orleans and San Antonio as well as west of El Paso.  I don't think there is any real support for expanding the system, but there could be support for making the existing system better if it only require a relatively small investment.    Rerouting the City of New Orleans, Eagle, and Heartland Flyer, as well as discontinuing the Sunset, would produce two improvements.  It would open up a substantial Texas market to train service.  But most importantly, it would improve the calling times and frequency at most of the major cities along the existing routes.  Most people, who might consider taking the train, are not going to get up in the middle of the night to catch one.  Only the diehards will do so.  The key question is whether improved scheduling and frequency would generate enough incremental revenues to offset the incremental costs.  I don't know.  But an organization that will not experiment with its service patterns will never know if there are better ways to do things.  And in the business world, where I spent my working career, those who won't experiment and change die on the vine.Having grown up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which at the time was the home of the heavy works of the Pennsylvania Railroad, as well as a crew change point for all freight and passenger trains, I have a deep respect for railroad people.  Most of my friend's fathers and uncles worked for the PRR.  Railroaders are no more resistant to change than the rest of us.  Most of us don't like to get outside of our comfort zone, especially after we have put down roots.  But change is a part of our world.  And sometimes it can produce great opportunities.  When I was 60, my company asked me to move to Australia to take over a function at our Australian subsidiary.  Sure, why not, I told myself.  Off I went.  And it turned out to be the best five years of my life.  Picking up roots at 60 was not easy.  But the payoff was better than anything that I imagined.Up until this spring Amtrak had station agents in Texarkana, Marshal, Longview, Dallas, Fort Worth, Temple, Austin and San Antonio to serve the Eagle, for the most part, as well as the Heartland Flyer in Fort Worth.   I was in Alpine this past week.  Amongst other things I had time to observe Numbers 1 and 2. The configuration was two locomotives, a baggage car, transition sleeper, two sleepers, one lounge car, one diner, and four coaches.  One sleeper and one coach, at least, were Eagle connection cars.  So the Sunset, at least during the summer, is using two locomotives.  The probability of Amtrak making any significant changes in the long distance service, especially along the lines that I have suggested, is slim and none.  But it is fun to think what might be.  As I have said in previous posts, the future of the long distance passenger train is doubtful.  I would prefer to see them discontinued and implement instead viable rail passenger service in the Texas Triangle.  But as long as the long distance trains run, Amtrak should provide the best possible service within its budgetary capabilities.  It needs to think outside of the nine dots.
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