Could Amtrak become a fallen flag like other railroads before them???
Anything could happen. Yep.
kevin
Let’s hope so.
[}:)]
Amtrak never should have been a “flag” to begin with.
down with amtrak
[#ditto]
[(-D]
yeah… down with the only passenger service in the country. awesome! never mind how fun riding those trains is
either revise amtraks entire way of thinking ,and spending money. or let some new group of investers take over. airlines spend more than amtrak. northwest is 3 billion dollars in the red! and still losing. they need to do something before no one can ride the rails except for rail excursions!
i like riding the rails. but i regret, are only option is goverment rundowned amtrak
Can’t see myself waxing nostalgic over a broken arrow. - a.s.
i agree
I kinda don’t want it to die. Its supporting caltrain with dough I believe. And I don’t know what the SF peninsula will do without caltrain.
And no more cheap train rides for me.
The state pays Amtrak to operate CalTrain. If Amtrak were to disappear, other provisions would be made for the operation of CalTrain.
Where?
http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/Letters/articles.asp?articleID=5931
(Can’t get the link to work right - if you want to go to the site, you’ll have to cut and paste it in the address block of your browser)
Bike path beside train tracks is a boondoggle
The bike path that is to run between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake in the rail corridor is screaming for common sense and environmental protection. It looks like the APA will allow this disaster to go unchecked only because the user group is politically correct.
Since I read a story in another paper on how the trail was going to follow the elevated section next to the power lines from Ray Brook to Lake Placid, I was wondering what fantasy world the planners of this trail were living in. I have traveled this corridor hundreds if not thousands of times and have never seen this elevated section. As a matter of fact, I would bet 50 percent of the power poles are under at least some amount of water. And those that are not are on a hill so steep that a trail will be impossible to construct. So those are the areas where they plan building long boardwalks (more than 1,000 feet of them), basically cantilevered out from the railroad bed, thereby segmenting large populations of wildlife from thousands of years of natural egress and ingress.
When you add more than 6 miles of fencing to keep the train and bicyclers apart, you realize this plan will be devastating to the wildlife population. Don’t get me wrong; the first few years, the coyotes will have their fill of fawns who will attempt to flee with their mothers but will be unable to get through the fence. It will be like a buffet.
It’s sort of ironic, con
The only wind keeping this particular flag flying is the hot air expelled within the Beltway keeping it weakly waving as a symbol of inertia. I cringed when I first heard the moniker, it reminded me of Amway, or some madison avenue’s think tank’s version of a railroad name…I remember when some older stations were bypassed in favor of what were referred to as Amshacks…ugh…
Sheez!
No disrespect, but some of these anti-Amtrak responses seem pathetic.
So, in essence: get rid of Amtrak and that’s it. Don’t replace it. Right?
Come on, do you all REEEEEALLY THINK that if Amtrak is done away with, Uncle Sam is going to come up with a brilliant new strategy for passenger rail? Talk of medium distance corridors have been ongoing since the 1970s, but the costs to implement these systems far exceed what it costs to fund Amtrak.
Are your solutions realistic? Is it better to add more cars and buses to already burdened interstate highways?
Amtrak should be viewed and funded as a beneficial service, not a taxpayer burden. If it helps take cars off of the interstate highways, even if a few, then that’s fewer auto crashes and congestion bottlenecks to deal with.
I honestly doubt Amtrak will become a fallen flag anytime soon. It’s almost comical that inspite of the delays caused by the freight railroads prioritizing freights over passenger schedules, Amtrak is still showing good ridership numbers. So apparently there is still support for it.
Speaking strictly for myself, it is not the concept of public passenger rail but how it is funded, how it is managed, how accountable it is…Amtrak in my view fails on all these areas and more. In order for improvement or growth, if you will, this current incarnation must be replaced and the flag put up in the attic along with those of the ICC, WPA, etc…it’s outlived it’s band aid origin…
[%-)]So what does that have to do with Amtrak.
Bert
What monicker would replace it? USARail? RailPax?
The era of the private passenger train is over. There will not be any BNSF Zephyr or Super Chief. Amtrak will continue on in it’s sorry state. Never get enough invetment to provide a reliable service. What else can you expect from a railway using 10yr old diesels & 30yr old cars. There may be a few bold states like CA or IL willing to spend some on state-owned trains.
If you want to count all the lines like the Pioneer or Desert Wind, you may already count Amtrak as a fallen flag. That train dosen’t come to my town anymore. Feel lucky if you get any service.
I could be wrong, but I think the chief is a fairly reliable train. Do you know how muc, if any, travels on the BNSF transcon?
Changes do ned to take place, but unless the government encourages it/allows it it won’t happen. I’m curious to see what changes the new regime will institute.
Is there a pathological hatred of passenger trains which exists in the US? Or parts of it?
bemused.