The usual discussion is binary: trains or planes, trains or cars, rail or Maglev etc. In Congress Democrats usually want to prop up Amtrak and Republicans side on anything but rail. This configuration hasn't helped Amtrak to become a healthy passenger rail service. Some say, the quest to beef up Amtrak is a fools errand anyway after US passenger rail was essentially abandoned nearly 50 years ago when Amtrak was created as a consolidated successor of the by the ailing remaining 26 private passenger rail companies. Back then railroads transferring passenger service to Amtrak were required to only pay one-half of the railroads' financial losses from intercity passenger operations in 1969. In addition, the the
federal railroad act authorized $40 million federal money and a $100 million loan guarantee program to assist Amtrak's start-up. Ever since Amtrak has remained underfunded, even though it increased ridership and revenue.
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Amtrak: 50 year old coaches, antiquated stations: Quaint but ill equipped for the future (photo: Amtrak) |
Relentless car-centric policies and the transfer of all rolling stock and tracks to freight railroads lie at the root of the fact that passenger rail in the US is just a pale shadow compared to its robust brethren in Japan, Europe or China. The usual conclusion: America is too big for railroads and Amtrak is a lost cause. End of story.
Two more recent events begin to change this narrative. First the opening of the
first private passenger line in 30 years from Miami to Orlando in 2014, and now a new Amtrak leader who isn't just in the defensive against those who want to take starve Amtrak to be self sustaining, but who counters the swan song with a vision for the future.
His new vision sounds convincing to some, but also has quickly garnered concerns, criticism and opposition. Some deride the CEO's plans as "airline thinking" because Amtrak President Anderson used to be a the executive of Delta Airlines.
What is is his plan? The Wall Street's Journal illustrates the different positions in a
video in which Amtrak's chief of operations Gardner explains the new approach. As the New York Times described the current situation in its
magazine in March of this year:
there are either 61 or 960 immediate reasons not to travel by Amtrak trains from New York City to Los Angeles. Those are the extra hours and dollars, respectively, that you might reasonably expect to forfeit if you forgo a six-hour $129 nonstop flight and opt instead for an Amtrak sleeper car. Covering the interjacent 2,448.8 miles can easily consume some 67 hours for a mind-boggling $1,089. (New York Times, 03-22-19)
The Wall Street Journal had already reported as early as February that Amtrak is considering to eliminate long distance routes across the country in favor of shorter and faster intercity connections that mimic Amtrak's only success corridor, the so called Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington DC, the only Amtrak line that is
.....Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects