The latest Trains magazine has an interesting article titled Trains' Formula for Fixing Amtrak. It has touched off some spirited blogging on other rail sites. Someone reported it as "corruption on the board," which is not the case. It is an interesting history of problems with the hired managers conflicts with government oversight. I would highly recommend the reading of this article. :tb-biggrin:
I thought it was a good article as far as it went, but I don't read anything new on how to fix it - Amtrak, that is.
My impression is that Mr. Rushing spent too much time discussing history and loosely related unimportant issues, e.g. Mr. Lewis' condition upon his arrival at Rye, NY each Friday. I realize that history and politics must be understood when creating a foundation for later discussion of recommendations and corrective actions. However, Mr. Rushing wrote an overly complex historical discussion for his relatively shallow discussion that followed of well-known short-comings and corrective actions. What I expected from reading the article's abstract (addressed directly to President Obama) was a well thought out list of actions that must be undertaken to re-establish America's leadership in an integrated rail passenger system, and a schedule for implementing those actions. The recommendations I hoped for could have formed the basis of presentations by groups such as Amtrak's President and Directors, NARP's Directors, and other organizations directly promoting rail passenger systems, when addressing the FRA, Congressional commitees and sub-commitees, and side-line discussions with their staffs. Mr. Rushing's article went only part of the way to that end, and was too convoluted in its presentation.
You are right, he really didn't offer any solutions. Sounded like one of my rants on gummint interference. :tb-biggrin:
==================================================================== IMO, it's not so much that he didn't offer solutions, it's that he offered solutions that are not acceptable to many of the people on these boards. YOU DO KNOW there is more than one way of looking at things? No matter what "solution" can be found for AMTRAK, it is going to cost money, whether public or private. One of the biggest canards I have repeatedly heard is that "AMTRAK needs to define it's purpose" or words to that effect. Well, I thought that purpose had been defined when AMTRAK was formed, the purpose being to provide passenger rail transport on the nations rail system(s). It ain't going away folks! If it does then there will be bigger fiscal problems than anyone would care to deal with(rail property & infrastructure, a possible collapse or insurmountable deficit to Railroad Retirement etc) Charlie
Did anyone notice the editorial? It was about not re-instating the North Coast Hiawatha. I have also wondered about that and have anlways wondered would it be better to alternate the Empier builder thourgh Sou. Mont. every other day? Kevin
==================================================================== Or even a So. Montana section ala the Lake Shore Ltd.(Boston Section) CT
They already split the train to go to Portland. That would be a pretty complex route to add another split. I just wish they'd reinstitute LA/LV service.
==================================================================== Make the southern portion the Portland train. Or extend the Seattle portion to PDX. I used to foamfilm on the "Racetrack" during the CB & Q days. The Q ran the (usually)combined Empire Builder/Western Star - North Coast Limited/Mainstreeter with a Zephyr train to the Twin Cities, the respective GN & NP trains were split out there and run on their respective rails. After the merger, the combined train looked like a circus train with the combination of paint schemes. I used the WB commuter platform at the Harlem Ave. station to do my filming. At that time I had no idea that someday I would actually be running a train past that same platform! So it's no big deal to run 2 sections The CB& Q/BN did it alla time! Suggested reading.... "Dining Car to the Pacific" The story of the NP's famous,world renowned dining car service complete with recipies. The past couple of years I have made the fruitcakes from their recipe. If you guyz and galz have never tried some RR dining car recipes, you should! Most of them are quite easy as well as being quite tasty! In these days of "light" eating, you cant do better than the famous Southern Pacific "Help Yourself" Salad Bowl and their house salad dressing. The key was in the absolutely! fresh ingredients which could be varied depending on season and availability. Those salad greens you were enjoying on the train were growing,quite literally,outside your window only hours before!!!!! CT
A few years ago Amtrak was talking about splitting the Crescent at Meridian, MS. One section would continue on to New Orleans, while the other section would go to Dallas via Jackson, MS, and Shreveport, LA. The problem with the Dallas section is that it would use the recently upgraded Meridian Speedway and compete with significantly increasing freight traffic, which would be no different than what Amtrak faces every day with all their freight railroad conflicts. We can only hope the Obama administration recognizes and declares that rail passenger is a public utility, changes the makeup and culture of Amtrak's Board of Directors, and allows Amtrak's management to operate an efficient railroad without being micro-managed. Then pray that Congress will provide Amtrak with funding at the same level as that provided to highway and air traffic.
The Spring edition of "Classic Trains" has a photo article about an afternoon on the C.B.&Q at Brookfield IL on the "Racetrack". You can see some photos of the trains I was talking about. I used to film a couple miles east of there at the Harlem Ave. stop in Berwyn,IL CT
