What should be done with Amtrak?

[Quixote1818]

Poll question: What should be done with Amtrak?

[wakeme2008]

1. I am working on a contract with Norfolk Southern RR and

the other day I was reading an editorial in one of the RR magazines attacking Bush. Typical asshole Bush, he was quoted at some speach saying how he LOVED Amtrak and how important it was, then his budget came out cutting money for Amtrak...

Bush is crazy....... IMHO

[Douglas Carpenter]

2. other, Amtrak subsidies should be increased 10 fold

The subsidies on Amtrak are absolutely minuscule compared to the
subsidies on the auto, airlines and petroleum industry. There is no comparison. FOR GOD SAKES!!! WE FIGHT WARS THAT COST HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO PROTECT AN UNSUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY!! If we want to prepare for the future in a responsible and realistic way -- mass transit MUST-absolutely MUST be expanded dramatically.

[davepc]

3. I think it should be divided up into regional companies

Smaller regional management of the rail roads will probably be more efficient and cost effective.

[depakid]

4. 20 years from now

most Americans will deeply regret that they lacked the foresight to invest in passenger rail.

Perhaps even sooner than that.

[davepc]

7. It wasn't a lack of foresight in the late 40's

The passenger air service came straight from the World War II bomber manufactures.

Military/Industrial complex at its core.

And railroads were regulated, while the new airline industry for the most part was not.

[depakid]

12. There was also this little matter of interstate highways, suburbia

and GM & Firestone-

none of which have much of a future. By 2025, that way of life will be in the rearview mirror.

[NEOBuckeye]

26. Much sooner. Try < 5 years because of Global Peak Oil

There will much sooner than later come a time when rail is literally the life's blood of this nation, and only a select few will be able to afford to drive much of anything, anywhere.

But I don't think people will regret railway decay as much as they will wish that they had managed suburban and exurban sprawl with some semblance of a plan for a sustainable future. There are an awful lot of people who have literally bet the bank on their "countryside" dream mansion. Not being able to afford or even simply buy the gas for commuting back and forth to it, to say nothing about being able to purchase life's basic necessities, is going to make millions of people sick and mad as hell.

The 2010s are going to be a real blast. Don't say no one ever told you so.

[punpirate]

5. Leaving it alone isn't enough...

... it was created out of some very badly run railroads and the process from then on was to give it just enough money to limp along, gradually reducing routes and stops until it lost ridership and revenues, making it progressively less efficient. It's now one of the most backward national transportation systems in the industrialized world.

How about modernizing it, upgrading tracks and equipment, and making it a high-speed alternative to air travel? We spent $15 billion just bailing out the airlines after 9/11 (and will be spending much more bailing out their mismanaged pension systems in the near future so they can get out bankruptcy by turning that burden over to the government). We subsidize air travel, buses, etc., but we should privatize Amtrak at a time when the commercial railroads are falling off the rails again (after becoming competitive in the early `90s)?

[davepc]

8. I don't disagree

but thats a mind boggling expensive investment to make.

Billion of dollars for the right-of-way alone.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. compared with auto, highways, airlines and petroleum? hundreds upon

hundreds of billions and a foreign largely based around an unsustainable industry.

[davepc]

13. Acquiring the right of way for modern high speed trains

is going to be expensive, and a "gub'mit coming to take my land' emminate domain nightmare.

all the money dumped into the auto or airline industry is there to prop it up, not capital investment. We'd have to have the initial cost of setting up a modern system, then have the cost of running it.

Quite frankly, I don't see people yearning to give up their cars or air travel for trains, European/Japanese high speed or not.

we'll turn all the coal in montana into oil before we create a national mass transit system comparable to europe.

[Douglas Carpenter]

14. that may be -- but sooner or later there will be no choice

better we do it before dwindling oil supply forces the issue in a desperate situation. It took a lot more than the "free market" that created the massive highway system and the network of airlines and airports.

I am curious. Until the 1960's there were train tracks everywhere. I wonder how much of that is salvageable?

[davepc]

20. all the old right of way is useless for high speed trains

unless its majorly renovated. Even the one semi-decent high speed train Amtrak operates (from NY to Boston) has to slow down to 50mph for big stretches in Connecticut because of the track.

I like rail travel, I do...I have a metro card to prove it, but massive European systems just wont happen here.

Our best bet is to regonalize Amtrak and focus on smaller routes that make sense.

[Douglas Carpenter]

23. I remember back in 1976 PA Governor Milton Shapp proposed

as the key issue of his brief run for Dem nomination a massive railway project.
Unfortunately, he left office after a corruption scandal and the whole discussion of the issue disappeared. Some far-sighted candidate should raise this issue again.

[punpirate]

22. Thirty years from now...

... when jet fuel and gasoline prices are much, much higher than they are now, it will seem like a bargain. :)

What most people don't realize is that from a standpoint of energy efficiency, rail is very efficient when it comes from moving anything from point A to point B. Only pipeline is more efficient. That should be part of any planning regarding national rail.

And billions for increased right-of-way rights? Cheap compared to one year's worth of war, yes? :) Remember that all that war and defense spending is debt, so $60 billion of debt is actually more with interest.

The British are now up in arms over the privatization of parts of the rail system. They've had more accidents since privatizing rail upkeep, trains are less frequently on time, and costs have gone up. That's what we have to look forward to if Amtrak is sold off--at precisely the time when we need to improve one of the more energy efficient means of travel.

Cheers.

[Douglas Carpenter]

25. Exactly -- it's a matter of common sense and thinking ahead

[rzemanfl]

6. They should buy a lot of locomotives that run on coal, we will

need them in the not too distant future unless people start to wake up.

[triguy46]

9. Not enough Amtrak, not enough public transportation...

We've got it all wrong. Amtrak goes to a major city and dumps you downtown. See ya! In Europe, within minutes you could get another train, a subway, a bus, but in the US? Middle of the night in KC? or Dallas? or Houston? There's no public transport infrastructure make it worthwhile or an effective alternative, outside of the eastern corridor. In its current setup there's really no need for it to even pretend, out here on the prarie, and I regret that, cause I use trains like crazy in Europe.

[MaineYooper]

10. other-

subsidized into a viable alternative form of transportation. (subsidized at least to the same level that the allegedly independent airline industry is, that is)

[Nabia2004]

15. If I could take my car, I would be a regular user

Just imagine if Amtrak offered to ferry your car along for an affordable rate?

[Greyhound]

16. Other. You want to fix it? Simple, take the current subsidy and gross

revenue, turn it over to new management. Next pay them no salary, but they can keep 80% of profits. I guarantee within 6 months you'll see the cars full and the system making a profit.

[Loge23]

17. US transportation policy off track

The US is one of the only (may actually be the only) industrialized nation without a comprehensive rail network. The implications for national security are enormous, particularly after the 9/11 air shutdown.
Furthermore, we continue to over-support the increasingly inefficient air and automobile industry - ignoring the rapidly deteriorating extensive rail network throughout the country. This is donme not only in bailing out compnaies but in enormous capital outlays for roads and air traffic services.
One of Amtrak's major issues is the rails. Amtrak does not own the rails (outside of the NE corridor and possibly the LA-SD route) that their trains ride on.
We are wasting tons of cash putting band-aids on the problem. What we need is a comprehensive national plan to revive rail service and encourage outside investors to come in to run the trains if necessary. The most efficient government role would be refurbish the infrastructure to allow passenger and freight service to run independent of each other.
Someday, a Dem or other party will come in and devise a national work project to accomplish this worthy goal.

[brmdp3123]

18. Flying is too cheap, driving is too convenient.

Americans don't want to travel by rail.

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. but why is flying and driving so cheap? Do massive subsidies

of the airline, auto and petroleum industry have anything to do with it? Were those massive airports and highway systems created by the invisible hand of the market place? What will happen when the oil crisis really gets desperate? How many more hundreds of billions of dollars -- not to mention bloody resource wars abroad--be spent to sustain the unsustainable?

[LoZoccolo]

31. Not for certain trips.

I go between Grand Rapids, MI and Chicago, IL and it's cheaper than flying for stuff like Thanksgiving weekend. Usually it's pretty full, too.

[Laelth]

21. Other.

Amtrak should be vastly expanded, its trains modernized, its speed increased, and its service improved. Crimeny, we're so stupid sometimes. Every other industrialized nation in the world (perhaps Australia excepted) has a passenger train system that's superior to ours. I'm sick of us continuing to think of ourselves as the "greatest nation on the planet" when we rate so low on so many important indicators of basic quality of life. I love riding the trains in Europe. I'd love to be able to take my family on a train trip in my own home country.

:mad:

:end rant:

-Laelth

[OnionPatch]

24. I'm not what the answer is but I do know this

if the prices stay the same, I can't see their business improving. I've considered traveling Amtrak for the last four or five trips I've made but the prices are completely out of the question. If their prices were closer to Eurail prices I'd use them all the time.

[depakid]

27. It's downright cheap to go from PDX to Seattle

or even Bellingham. For a single person, all things considered, it damn near matches the cost of driving- without the traffic nightmares- and it puts you right in downtown.

[Swamp Rat]

28. We need trains, streetcars, trams and trolleys in every city in the USA.

And bike roads.

[eridani]

29. Like every other goddam form of transportation we have--

--it should be subsidized.

[bridgit]

30. Amtrak should be left alone, we need it...