What Amtrak needs...

[John WR]

What I suggest, Paul, is that is not really a question of turning back because here in the US much of the transit we used to have no longer exists.  

I've used public transit all of my working life.  I certainly agree with you that going into my attached garage and getting into my car to go where I want is a lot easier than walking two blocks to the bus stop in all kinds of weather.  I'm not talking about taking children along or going shopping (beyond one bag of items).  I'm just talking about getting to school or to work.  

But when you look at what you can save by having one car rather than two, well the money begins to add up.  And when you look at what you can accomplish on a bus or a train that adds up too.  

And maybe--just maybe--given the problems of obesity in our society some people are beginning to ask if always choosing the easiest way is really a good idea.  Using public transit builds in a certain amount of exercise into our lives.  Perhaps that is not the worst thing.  But I do think you are right and many people will choose the easy way no matter what.  

I'll try to stay off my soap box now.  

[Paul Milenkovic]

John WR

What I suggest, Paul, is that is not really a question of turning back because here in the US much of the transit we used to have no longer exists.  

I've used public transit all of my working life.  I certainly agree with you that going into my attached garage and getting into my car to go where I want is a lot easier than walking two blocks to the bus stop in all kinds of weather.  I'm not talking about taking children along or going shopping (beyond one bag of items).  I'm just talking about getting to school or to work.  

But when you look at what you can save by having one car rather than two, well the money begins to add up.  And when you look at what you can accomplish on a bus or a train that adds up too.  

And maybe--just maybe--given the problems of obesity in our society some people are beginning to ask if always choosing the easiest way is really a good idea.  Using public transit builds in a certain amount of exercise into our lives.  Perhaps that is not the worst thing.  But I do think you are right and many people will choose the easy way no matter what.  

I'll try to stay off my soap box now.  

I indeed have access to a pretty good bus transit, which is a lot closer on the home side that that chilly hike I had from Davis Street in Evanston, Illinois, and the bus drops me off a block from work.

Thanks to the Federal Government's transportation policies (the complaint is that the policy bias in government policy is against public transportation), the bus is free.  Parking my car at work costs 800 dollars/year for starters and the gasoline alone for just the trip to work and back runs 500 dollars.

And as you are so gracious to remind me, I am an aging person eating and not exercising myself towards obesity and running up everyone's taxes as I approach Medicare enrollment.

So I have a transit option to get to work, the bus is free, and I am at a $1300/year cost disadvantage as soon as I turn the ignition key.  Not only that, I was using the bus after Katrina, not that I could not afford the gasoline but as a good citizenship-thing in the face of a supply crunch.  I commuted to my undergrad school on a daily basis and ran my life around that, serving in the Northwestern University Associated Student Government, but always with an eye on the clock towards the C&NW train and Nortran bus (Metra and PACE for you young people) schedules at Davis Street.

I told the story of how we were a one-car-that-Dad-took-to-work family and Mom would take me along shopping to Marshall Fields on Michigan Avenue, which was an all-day transit outing and way to keep the kids engaged when school was out.

Your soap box remark about "choose the easy way no matter what", where do I begin.  So the ultimate advocacy argument in support of trains or other public transportation modes is that the vast public out there is morally defective?

What I am trying to say about automobiles is that having lived and held jobs in Illinois, Michigan, California, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, experienced everything from (what is now Metra), CTA, (what is now New Jersey Transit), MBTA (Boston), New York City and Tokyo subways, the Northeast Corridor passenger service, the western long-distance trains, the Chicago-Detroit "Wolverine" corridor service, having been aculturated to public transportation from childhood through young adulthood, having lived in urban, near-big-city suburban, remote suburban, exurban, and college-town settings, having lived in commuter rail as well as freeway suburbs.

I currently have free bus service, not just to work, but anywhere in town.  I have heeded the Siren call of the automobile.  Paul, Paul, open the door!  Sit down, isn't the seat comfy?  Please, please, turn the ignition key.  Ooooo, that's good, now place the transmission selector in Reverse.  Feeling better already?