First you say you won't and then you will

I can't figure out whether Amtrak is trying to emulate the late, great Hunter Harrison in terms of its caprice, or simply imitating the worst of corporate America as it sways back and forth in the winds of public opinion. Either way, Amtrak wins my prize for changing its corporate mind the most times in a six-month period. It does this by deciding that PTC isn't as important as they thought it was, after all, for those routes where a legal delay in implementation can be achieved.

Always wanting to be at the forefront of defining the game, Amtrak believes that those routes that are simply exempted by the FRA from the January 1, 2019, aren't legal until Congress says its okay. Knowing that getting Congress to say anything other than the name of our current president, they expect Congress to do this either before the mid-terms or, somehow, in a lame duck session, before the January 1 deadline.

Am I the only one who thinks this is just another way of saying what they have already said? Namely, Amtrak won't run any route that is not PTC compliant after the deadline, period. Couching it in terms of getting an okay from Congress is just Amtrak (and it's airline oriented CEO) getting the rest of us off its back until the day they embargo those trains and routes.

Bus ticket? Anyone?

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