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[quote user="schlimm"] One more thing about SWA vs Amtrak.  SWA is low cost in part because it has an in-shop pilot's union, rather than ALPA.  Amtrak has to contend with high union wages, like freight rails, which also consumes much of passenger revenue. Not sure about SWA's pension burdens, if any, but I bet it's a lot less than the pension burden Amtrak has.  [/quote] For a long time I was under the impression that SWA's labor costs were considerably lower than those of the competition.  Not so!  Southwest pays the going rate, as I learned from a close friend who has been with the company as an executive for decades.  However, they have one clear labor advantage.  Their employees are or were more productive than the employees for their major competitors. SWA does not have a legacy pension system.  Their employees have had a 401k type plan from the get go.  The company and the employee contribute to the plan.  The company also has a very good stock option plan.  Many of the ordinary people who risked all to help the company get started became millionaires many times over.  And we not talking just executives.  Many of the line people who got in on the ground floor with Southwest became very wealthy.  Comparing SWA against Amtrak or any other rail operation is dysfunctional.  They are entirely different operations.  Southwest was able to take advantage of a changing regulatory environment and make use of common facilities.  It paid its share of those facilities, as it still does, through fuel taxes and a variety of fees.     I commented on SWA in large part because of the notion that it single handily killed the proposal for high speed rail in Texas.  The proposal died because it was constructed poorly and was premature.
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