--Apparently Amtrak hasn't been doing to hot lately--throughout the last several years--and they're on some sort of government thing that says if they don't become a little bit more independent within the next several months, Amtrak gets liquidated. I saw a very disturbing cartoon in the paper about a week back, too. Can somebody give me some help here, I've been getting a little worried. --And what would happen if Amtrak were liquidated? Where would the equipment go? Where would Amtrak California go? Would there be any passenger rail at all? I feel a little uninformed... ~Thanks.
*if* this happens (and after Sep 11th who knows?) I doubt you will see all of Amtrak dissapear. It's going to depend on getting services which are actually useful to folk, and which will be of benifit. (I.E. that people will be either willing to pay the actual cost of *or* that some level of government is willing to subsidize) You can bet fairly safely that the North East Corridor will not suddenly close down for example. Possibly some other bits of Amtrak that are considered viable as regional rail networks (possibly some Midwest & California routes) will stay as Amtrak services, or possibly these could end up as state-run trains (I could certainly see that happening in California) And after Sep 11th, will they choose to keep bailing out Airlines, or Amtrak, given some suitable short-medium routes there are a few places in the country it *could* work given a bit of commitment & willpower. The trains to worry about I'd guess will be the long distance ones, will they cease to be, or become expensive luxury tour trains? But that's all supposition. I heard a quote once "may you live in interesting times", I think that applies here!
Since Amtraks birth they have been a quazi government run company. Amtrak has relied on money from congress to cover the rest of the bill that what money they do make doesn't cover. Amtrak over the years has grown more and more self reliant, where today they only require about 15 to 20% help from the government. Congress a few years ago decided that Amtrak should be able to be self sufficent by 2003 even though there is no passenger railway system in the world that is. Everyone states how well the Japanese and German and french systems are but they are so heavly state funded it's not even close to the US. So what if huh? My opionon is it probably won't happen. It is just crazy to look at how congress is bailing out the airlines and I bet it will soon be other companies too. Any way. The northeast corridor can't be shut down, it will always run. As for California most of the trains there are state supported and will still be running as will probably the cascadia trains in Wash/Ore. The trains you will loose will be long haul. Coast Starlight,Empire Builder,SW Chief,T Eagle,Calif C,Sunset, and probably most your North South long hauls on the east coast and midwest. You will have congress paying money to the furloughed employees who are out of work. Equipment will be probably sold and or scrapped. And the USA will loose a bit of tradition that started and made this country what it is today.
As for yours truly I would probably end up going back to that desolate area of Whitefish Montana. Bump in and work in the pool jobs from Whitefish to Spokane. Some of the Amtrak employees like myself came to Amtrak from former frieght service on leaves of absence. So if Amtrak goes away we fall back to frieght dog service. But the majority of Amtrak people are not this lucky and would be at the local unemployement line, but making a salary like what they were making prior to Amtraks disolve for the next 3 to 5 years.
