Thanks for the correction. It ran through Oct. 1, 1979.
We cant have any federal agency make rulings on itself and then be accoutable to nobody but God himself. Including Amtrak we need to have the STB do its job and assert jurisdiction of the ICC or Congress write a law that gives them the jurisdiction.
Better go back and read the history of why and who killed Phoenix service.
Wrong on Columbus. The National Limited until 1979.
Amtrak has people with brains. But figuring out where to best deploy assests to serve the most folks isn’t what those brains are used for. It’s not the “game” Amtrak plays. Amtrak’s job, as they see it, is to defend the status quo. No more. No less. It’s what they are rewarded for doing.
With the perspective being that if the status quo can’t be defended, then the alternative is the organization’s demise - one can better understand their thought processes. If Amtrak’s future existance were in some significant manner assured, then the status quo would not have to be defended with such vigor and the ‘brains’ could be allocated to expansion of the brand and its offerings.
My head is starting to hurt with all this innuendo and politics.
Wasn’t the decision on Phoenix largely driven by the route involving a fairly large mileage of track that saw little traffic aside from Amtrak, leaving a huge amount for the Government to provide for needed maintenance and improvement? At least that was something I remember.
If the situation has changed, it would be nice to discuss that substantively instead of going through a number of nested posts that don’t.
So, what happened to the traffic that the SP/UP formerly had in Phoenix? It was this decline that brought about the decision to discontinue going through Phoenix, not an arbitray decision on the part of Amtrak’s management.
It was already posted, by me.
Unfortunately, the route between Colunbus OH and Indianapolis IN (cab signalled and heavy 152lb rail and mostly double track) is no more and East of Colubus, to Pittsburg, no longer direct. When Conrail was formed, most of that track was not included. The route from Indianaolis East is hard to find traces of ( a few bridge abutments remain and some trail) and the route East of Columbus is a Genese & Wyoming line that looks to be in good shape.
The feds offered to upgrade the CSX Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati corridor for passenger service, but Ohio Gov Kasich snubbed the deal. Michigan used the money to buy 100+ miles of the Wolverine corridor from NS.
Amtrak should more accurately pursue buying more tracks if given the opportunity to do so. Think about how much less freight interference there would be.
I meant actively pursue.
It makes sense for Amtrak to pursue buying track on some of their busier routes, like they did in the northeast, Michigan, and I think California. However, on lesser routes, why buy the line when the freight railroads will maintain it, and ATK only has to pay a below market access fee. They will never have the budget to buy what they would like.
Didn’t PA get money from the feds to upgrade the Pennsylvanian between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh? What happened to that money?