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Every day it seems more and more like the Amtrak board of directors and upper management simply do not want to run long-distance passenger trains any more. Their hearts--I won't say "if they have them"--are in running the Northeast Corridor, the closest thing Amtrak has to high-speed rail transportation. It probably is the closest thing to high-speed rail Amtrak will ever have. They are also invested in running the state-sponsored corridor trains. But those pesky long-distance trains, the Empire Builders, the Southwest Chief, the Florida "silvers", the Sunset; well, that's another story.
Maybe it's the fact that Amtrak has spent so much time adjusting its books to make them look useless that they actually believe they are. Maybe it's the political climate in which long-term government employees believe that nothing good happens between the coasts, or at least between the Mississippi and the West Coast. Maybe it's the constant battle, which freight rail is winning, to keep Amtrak trains on time. Maybe it's the oft-cited allegation that the current Amtrak CEO is just a glorified airline plant who wants nothing more than to have long-distance travelers go via air or stay home.
Maybe it's time to dump Amtrak and try something else.
I'll let that hang out there for a few seconds while the "Oh, God, No"s percolate.
Maybe it's time to sell the corridors to the states that currently fund them. Let the states find private operators for their trains or develop something else, like an operating consortium. Maybe sell the long-distance equipment to private operators, too. Those who know railroading will say this won't work because there won't be any "national railroad network." Big clue! There isn't one now. Amtrak has always been a poor excuse for a national network, and the mandate that freight railroads give priority has become a joke. In face, due to recent court rulings, it's a court-ordered joke.
For future posts, I'll think up some alternatives. So don't write your Congressman yet. At least not before the mid-terms. He or she is already busy trying to hold onto power to care what's going on in the vast nothingness of the American Great Plains.
©2018 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
