A Billion dollers is not what it used to be, So why keep beating up on Amtrak for its Billion?

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CopCarSS

QUOTE: TSA, strip search horror stories and all, the airlines are currently running ahead of the pre 9-11 passenger totals. Airports may be like prison camps and airplanes may be like cattle cars, but flying is cheap and fast.

Is it? On really long distance stuff, I’m sure it is. One can’t compare flying across the Atlantic to taking a steamship. However, I’ve turned Denver to Chicago in 13 hours before (granted that was perhaps a bit above the posted limit, but not terribly so). Nominally, the flight between the same points in about 3 hours. But consider the following:

It takes me about 45 min. to get to DIA.
Depending on travel conditions and such, its suggested that I arrive as early as 3 hours before my flight. Let’s call it 2, though.
There’s the three hour flight time.
Assume 45 minutes to get from the gate to baggage claim, and get my luggage.
There’s a 1 hour drive from either Chicago airport to my hometown.

That’s 7 and a half hours. Faster? Yes. Worth the trouble of prison camp airports, and cattle car planes? It depends. Lately, Amtrak has been the prefered method of travel. Just a personal preference. But still a lot better to me that the TSA nonsense.

Chris

Agree! The break-even point for fly vs. drive keeps getting farther and farther out. When I am, outside Atlanta, its about 300 miles, now. I think that’s where the niche for HSR (or even half-decent conventional svc!) is, mostly east of the Miss. But, that, apparently, isn’t Amtrak’s mission.

[Anonymous]

I am a railfan. I love trains. I’m also a taxpayer, and I’m the father in law of a soldier who has been to Iraq. I’m married to a teacher. I am a deputy sheriff.

I know this is going to be incendiary, but I will say it anyway: I am more willing to lobby for more money to keep my son in law alive in Iraq, or program funding that continues to pay my wife’s salary. I am definately more willing to lobby for LEA/TSA/Homeland Security grants if it means an updated 911 system for my county or a greater capability to handle HAZMAT disasters for the fire department.

AMTRAK is not “a national treasure”. It is, at best, a regional treasure- for anyone who wants a transportation alternative between Washington, DC and Boston and points in between. For the rest of the country, it is a convenience, not a neccesity.

Erik

[DSchmitt]

A billion here a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking abour real money.

Everett Dirksen, Senate Minority Leader 1959-1969