Here’s a quiz question:
Found this headline on line: “AMTRAK’S RIDERSHIP POSTS GAIN OF 25%; 2 Million People Used Rail System in June, the Highest Total for a Month in Unit’s History”
Guess the year.
Winner gets to ask the next question. No research allowed…
Last year ?
Nope.
Twenty Oh Six??
Nope.
Hint. Dem. Prez at the time.
Nineteen ninety-two?
Nope. Wrong prez.
Nineteen seventy-eight?
No. One of the same conditions that’s driving ridership now was driving it hard that particular year, too.
No. Prez Ford was a Republican. But a good guess based on the previous clue…
Is it 1972?
1979
Correct! The height of the second round of oil price hikes - regular unleaded was going for $1.25 a gallon in the northeast and there were lines, again.
There was also a United strike and it was just before the Carter era train-offs (Floridian, NC Hi, Champion, Hilltopper, Shenendoah, Nat’l Ltd., etc.)
Still, if you inflate that ridership by the growth of population since then, Amtrak should have 30M riders today.
There was a big drop in ridership during the Downs era (late Bush, early Clinton regime).
If ridership had a peak in 1979 owing to high gas prices, and there were “Carter era train discontinuances”, what accounted for discontinuing trains in the aftermath of high gas prices? Was there pressure on the Federal budget?
Key phrase is “accounted for,” and in terms of Amtrak it’s politics over pragmatism, or (IMHO) the public welfare. Most Presidential administrations (not all) have been hostile to Amtrak and sway enough important Senators to get the cuts through.
Pity, because now that the family auto is really a pain in the wallet for l-d trips, there are ever so many routes Amtrak ran at one time between the late seventies and the mid-nineties that it simply doesn’t serve any more. Paying a host road is only one factor in the cost of opening up a new line to Amtrak service.
The Defense Department has thrown away five Billion dollars on the “Osprey,” a failed attempt at a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft that has never been in service but has killed some of its pilots all by itself. That amount of money could jack up Amtrak’s funding by half again as much for ten years! So when you’re talking Amtrak routes efficacy often gives way to power politics and reducing the budget on the backs of the riders while other areas are sacrosanct. I’m not mentioning any names so this isn’t really politix.
Yes. The economy was not too well in the mid to late 70s and most of the trains that came off were ones that were quasi-political dogs that were put on after May 1, 1971.
I was rather shocked to find that ridership was so high at that time - although I’ve always had a sneaky suspicion that the LD trains have not kept up with population growth along their route. They are, in effect, continuing a slow death that started 60 years ago.
The problem with todays long distance trains is not the ridership but the shortage of equipment and lack of sleeping car space. The last four times I have booked on Amtrak long distance trains they have told me sleeping car space was sold out on those particular dates even though I booked two months in advance. In each case I was able to buy sleeping car space after boarding in each incident. The problem seems like Amtrak is doing their best to discourage ridership if everyting is sold out and that is really not the case. In the old days they had one coach assigned to short trippers those that were only traveling between intermediate points. In that way other passengers were not disturbed when passengers got off in the middle of the night somewhere. Another problem with the eastbound CZ is that many passengers only book travel from Oakland and Sacramento to Reno and the coaches leave Reno half empty. And many passengers who have tried to book on that train to go further east have been turned away due to the Reno traffic. I’m not an accountant but that certainly seems like they are running a train half empty across Nevada to Salt Lake City before really finding additional passengers and that doesn’
The family “outlaws” want to come up from North Carolina this summer, and they are thinking day coach to DC and sleeper the rest of the way on Amtrak. The family minivan transports them at 1250 BTU/passenger miles – Amtrak averages at 2700 BTU/passenger mile – more than double the energy per passenger. If the four of them wanted to cram into their Camry, they are doing 717 BTU/passenger mile, nearly 4 times more energy efficient than Amtrak. So how is Amtrak supposed to be more cost effective for that trip than driving apart from the government footing the bill for Amtrak’s fuel bills?
As to the money spent on the Osprey, it is a military aircraft with a very specific military misson, and unfortunately our brave men and women in uniform sometimes lose their lives carrying out military missions, in peacetime as well as in time of war. So long as we are talking about President Carter and what happened to Amtrak, there was this matter of the Iran Hostage Crisis and the failed helicopter commando raid to atte
[quote user=“passengerfan”]
The problem with todays long distance trains is not the ridership but the shortage of equipment and lack of sleeping car space. The last four times I have booked on Amtrak long distance trains they have told me sleeping car space was sold out on those particular dates even though I booked two months in advance. In each case I was able to buy sleeping car space after boarding in each incident. The problem seems like Amtrak is doing their best to discourage ridership if everyting is sold out and that is really not the case. In the old days they had one coach assigned to short trippers those that were only traveling between intermediate points. In that way other passengers were not disturbed when passengers got off in the middle of the night somewhere. Another problem with the eastbound CZ is that many passengers only book travel from Oakland and Sacramento to Reno and the coaches leave Reno half empty. And many passengers who have tried to book on that train to go further east have been turned away due to the Reno traffic. I’m not an accountant but that certainly seems like they are running a train half empty across Nevada to Salt Lake City before really finding additional pas