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On a Long Train Trip, Rare Pleasures Return

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[quote user="Paul Milenkovic"] As to the role of Amtrak in serving the disabled, to personalize the argument and say "I am a disabled person benefiting from Amtrak and the airlines are unable to accomodate me", I guess that puts an end to any discussion.  Who doesn't want persons with whatever manner of disability, impairment, or difficulty from enjoying a comfortable travel experience? On the other hand, if the billion plus spent on Amtrak is fundamentally about persons with disability, maybe a government subsidy of some kind of Jet Shares thing, where persons get shared rides on small jets with the kind of cabin arrangement to allow a disabled person to travel without the suffering of commercial air travel might be the thing?  Maybe a subsidy to have the disabled ride in first class seats might be the way to go?  Yes there is that equalization of cabin pressure issue, but mountain railroading (or the Japan Bullet train, which is also mountain railroading) has some of the same thing.  What I am asking is whether trains are the only solution to our transportation problems or if they are a solution that we like that is in search for a rationale?  [/quote] On my recent flight from BWI to Austin, Southwest Airlines boarded eight wheel chair passengers. One of them was on supplemental oxygen support.  Most disabled people can be accommodated by the nation's airlines. For those who severally disabled and cannot be carried on a normal flight, they have several choices.  They can try to catch a ride on a corporate jet. Yep, its true.  Many corporations will take an ambulatory passenger on one of its airplanes if there is room, and its going where the person needs to go. And more often times than not there is room.  We frequently did it on our corporate jets.  Persons needing this emergency transport can contact a national coordinator for help.   American Airlines will fly sick children to world class medical centers with the help of its frequent flyers.  Those frequent flyer program participants who want to help contribute their points to the program.  American matches the points, and flys the children to the locations where they need to go to get their special medical services. The children usually ride on one of American's scheduled flights, but the airline has gone to extraordinary steps to accommodate the sickest of children. How's that for a greedy capitalist organization?  I have contributed hundreds of thousands of points to the program.  Now is your chance, if you are an American Airlines Frequent Flyer program participant, meaning all of those who participate in these forums, to contribute and help a child get critical medical care. If transporting ambulatory passengers from A to B is a national imperative, the government could subsidize the use of general aviation operators with the equipment needed to carry ambulatory passengers.  It would be a lot cheaper, in all probability, than the cost of Amtrak's long distance passenger trains. If the argument that the country needs the long distance trains to carry disabled people who cannot be carried in any other conveyance is valid, then the long distance train network should be extended to every community in the United States with a population of more than 10,000.  Lets see, in Texas that would mean passenger trains for Midland, Odessa, Brownsville, Mercedes, McAllen, Pharr, Paris, Amarillo, Lubbock, etc.  Get the point? The argument does not wash.
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