April Second is the day Amtrak can service its 180 day notice for discontinuence of all its Long-Distance runs. I really hope that the US Gov't finds some sort of sollutiuon for this problem in the near future, although, I dont think Amtrak is the answer. What are you're takes on the future of Long Distance Rail in the US???
They should just do it today, April 1st, as they are the fools. I think that the private sector will figure out a way to capitalize on some of the routes and take them over, especially long distance trains that end in holiday destinations. Perhaps they will do like the Acadian Railway here in the east and run special vacation trains that stop in scenic places that offer good shopping and hotel accomodations. Russ
People seem to forget that Amtrak is an unwelcome guest on all there long haul routes. The government forces the railroads to run Amtrak passenger trains. If you sell off the routes I find it hard to see how some judge will be able to tell the UP they have to allow Walmart to run a passenger train 7 days a week let alone 2 or 3 times. My personal oppinion is Amtrak should have some out side independent auditor come in and restructure Amtraks management and way of doing buisness. Doing this I'm sure could cut a big part of the pork barrel fat that runs this service into the ground.
Amtrak was created because the private sector did not want anything to do with psgr trains, it was a losing proposition then just as it is now. The Federal gov't must continue to fund Amtrak just as all the other gov't 's in the countries in the Free World do today. Do you think a private sector in France, Germany, or Japan operate those rail systems? I don't think so !!!
Can anyone say 9/11/01? On this date the airlines were shut down, who took up the Slack? None other than Amtrak.they added numerious cars to each train....mail was once again on the rails in a big way. People realized even for a short time that they needed the passenger train. Hopefully, the govt will get their heads out of their rears and start taking a good hard look..the defense budget was upped by I forgot how many million.....they should give some of that money to Amtrak.
I don't think getting rid of Amtrak is a good idea for many of the reasons already posted above. Around the New York are they do a great business with several runs a day to Boston and DC and they pick up where the Metronorth railroad ends heading north through NY. I can't understand how they can be so succesful here and loose money everywhere else.
Whoa there, Metronorth. Why is Amtrak asking for 1.2 billion dollars with only 200 million going to the Long distance trains? How well is Amtrak doing in the northeast if they need 1 billion dollars???
