Amtrak Long Distance proposed budget not zeroed out

I knew this would not be zeroed out you can google my past predictions here. Though I thought there would be a cut of 25-30%…

RvB? Consider locations.

You were right. And I was surprised. Not that you were right. That I was wrong.

I presume you mean Red vs. Blue. I’m not sure that is totally true, since the West Coast is blue which is also the destination of most of the LD trains west of the Mississippi. The target of the NEC cut seems to be New York in general, maybe with congestion pricing in the bullseye.

East Coast in general
Cal. 3 LD trains.
Illinois many LD and state supported trains. Metro areas even in R states vote B.

Most/many small town and rural areas haven’t seen a passenger train in 54 or more years. They vote R.

Remember the Coast Starlight is a 4th CA and west coast train, plus WA and OR each have their section of the Empire Builder, but yes they cross a lot of red states to get there.

CA LD train services (3):
Coast Starlight
California Zephyr
Southwest Limited

What train have I overlooked? EB isn’t routed through CA.

Eastern WA and OR are bright crimson.

I’ll give you my two cents. I think this is only remotely related to politics. Discontinuing the National Network dramatically increases spending over the next 3-5 years for Amtrak vs maintaining or a reduction. So if I am looking to cut costs…last item I would cut would be Amtrak’s National Network. I believe the Amtrak Intercity President covered this in the video I posted a while back. The labor protection costs are near horrific levels because in order to hire Amtrak employees you pretty much have to guarantee them a job for x number of years in this on again and off again spending environment since Amtrak founding. To not guarantee them the labor protection means your only going to ever have transitional employees working which would deep six customer service as you need experience to run a passenger train in my view. I am sure they looked at elimination but then looked at the past as to why it was not eliminated (via Congressional input). Last but not least, what Joe Biden stated is true. You drop the National Network and any support for any remaining part of Amtrak will vaporize in Congress…so there is actually some political.

It is entertaining to read on TRAINS at time these folks that think the Federal Budget is like their household expenses. Not really so. Lots more of the ifs ands or buts on the Federal Level. You can’t cut your way to a balanced budget at this point.

Amen.

Even as a whole, Amtrak is a drop in the ocean compared to the federal budget or even deficit. If tax cuts weren’t reinstated, the deficit would be fairly manageable with some budget pruning from the Ag. budget for example

The Sunset Limited - Numbers 1 and 2 - and the Texas Eagle - Numbers 421 and 422 - terminate or originate in Los Angeles. The Texas Eagle’s two through cars, i.e. coach and sleeper, are combined with the Sunset Limited west of San Antonio.

Amtrak advertises the Texas Eagle, which a glutton for punishment can take from Chicago to LAX or vice versa, as its longest route.

I stand corrected. Does the Sunset run every day?

Sunset Ltd. ridership was tiny, only 77,000 in FY 23 (only 5k more than the Heartland Crawler) but TX Eagle was 294,000. Tail wagging dog?

Were the numbers better when it connected through to Jacksonville and the NY to Florida trains? I wonder if one of the NEW Orleans to Mobile trains will ‘count’ as a Sunset extension…

What was the last year of FL service? 2004?

Yes and No. There are essentially two tax cuts. So I agree the new one we can do without. The extension of the end of fiscal year 2025 tax cut they are afraid to let that expire because in their view it would bring on a recession and they would spend the money anyway with stimulus which in their view would be the more damaging option. Options are more limited as we move into the future and potentially we can run out of options. Spending cuts and the ability to cut spending are also more limited as we move into the future. I think they have two real options left. Economic growth, and/or inflation - dollar devaluation. Pretty sure it will be a mixture but looking at HIstory again they could lean on the latter more than the former. We lost 10% of the spending value of the Dollar this year already.

End of Florida service was not a number, it’s a name.

Katrina.

I think that Texas Eagle extension to LA was to preserve the Sunset LImited and at the same time conserve the amount of equipment they otherwise need if the trains ran seperately

Yes. Katrina was 2005 so I assumed the train still ran to Florida in 2004. In FY 2003, it carried 105,000 passengers.

The Sunset Limited, with the through cars from the Texas Eagle, runs three days a week. The Texas Eagle runs daily between Chicago and San Antonio.

In FY24, according to the September 2024 Amtrak Monthly Performance Report, the Limited carried 76,900 riders. The Eagle saw 325,700 riders. The number of Eagle riders that go beyond or come from beyond San Antonio is unknown.

I have taken the Eagle to or from LAX at least 10 times since 1980. My last trip to LAX was in 2018. Last year I took it from Temple, TX to El Paso. I have met a number of folks on the Eagle that were going to or from Arizona or New Mexico to points beyond San Antonio.