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Amtrak’s Hiawatha corridor sets new calendar year ridership record
Is anyone surprised? Run the trains on the hour and see how much business is generated. This is not rocket science.
When you do the math that comes out to just over 150 passengers per one-way trip. Double that for the other direction and multiply by 7 trips per day and that’s a heck of a lot of people staying off the I94 corridor between Chicago and Milwaukee!
Just curious; does this justify another scheduled round tripper?
Give them free rein to 110!
There was a railroad that did this before but was allowed to fail; remember the North Shore line downtown to downtown?
So, Mr Guse, success can only be measured in dollars and cents, apparently? There is no other metric by which public benefit can be measured? That is hard to believe. Keep worshiping the “Almighty Dollar.” Last time I checked, the “provider class” was doing just fine, thank you.
To answer James Boudreau, at Summerfest time there is an additional evening trip, to return intoxicated flatlanders to Corruptistan at less hazard to drivers on 94. Might be some value in providing that as a regular service.
TRAINS, this was a wonderful article right up to the last paragraph where you decided to take a gratuitous stab at Walker. Walker has shown huge support for this line including siding w/ the Democrats to fund the maintenance facility.
The Talgo contract is a huge mess that started with the no-bid, sweetheart deal former Gov. Doyle gave to Talgo, which shut down local train manufacturer “Super Steel.” The Talgo trains cannot even be put into service right now because they were not built to comply with the Americans w/ Disabilities Act. Furthermore, they are too short to run on this route and their service agreement is overpriced and obnoxious. Also, the present Amtrak service receives 25% funding from Illinois where the Talgos were negotiated to be funded exclusively by Wi. The whole deal needs to be renegotiated which is what the court proceedings will help achieve.
If Oregon will not see its talgo train sets run for a long time (built in Mil. at the same time), why do you assign blame to Wisconsinites, who are doing a wonderful job with this service and continuing to get value for their tax dollars, just because this new toy isn’t ready to be unwrapped yet? No wonder no name is assigned to the byline.
Gov. Walker got trashed for stopping the Milwaukee to Madison money pit that would have taken people from Milwaukee to the Dane County Airport, 6miles from Madison and the University of Wisconsin campus (You need to ask yourself, ‘For what???’).
Yet few remember that he requested that the Federal funds be transferred to improve the Hiawatha service. Something that actually gets used. By the way, the Feds refused the transfer. Evidently it wasn’t a big enough money pit.
I’m not sure “he” isn’t just some troll-bot program. The responses are so predictable, formulaic and irrelevant. Could just be a pay-to-post, too.
This is a reason as to why the Talgo cars should be in service…
Once again government success is measured not by profit or loss, but by the total number of recipients in the recipient class. If the recipient class has grown, and it has, no argument from me, then Amtrak must be a success, based on how socialists measure success. But has anybody stopped to consider what would happen if the provider class decided to become part of the recipient class? Here is a hint: Think of a house of cards with the bottom card knocked out.
As for Scott Walker, he did the right thing. Unlike big government Wile E Coyote big spenders, he seen where the edge of the cliff is located and decided to stop the spending before it was too late. This is known as fiscal responsibility, a concept which is foreign and uncomprehendable to socialists and their recipient class.
Or what Guse would call, another failed government welfare program, and a complete waste of taxpayer’s money.
Scott walker is truly blind. Too bad this jerk’s recall effort wasn’t successful. I certainly hope Talgo prevails in it’s lawsuit against this troll.
@JEFFERY GUSE - Every passenger on a train is someone who’s not receiving road or plane subsidies to do the same thing. And for what it’s worth, every passenger on a train reduces the subsidy needed to make Amtrak work, whose problem has always been high fixed costs and low per-passenger costs. By contrast, everyone on the roads adds to the amount needed to subsidize roads.
If the “provider class” (by which you mean “everyone” I assume) decides to ride by rail en-mass, Amtrak will be profitable. It’ll be win-win. I hope you manage to persuade your fellow Randroids to go Galt like this, it’ll be a victory for everyone.
Totally agree with Austin. Only thing I can add is that your FRA need to relax the rules so you can have off the shelf European Railcars so reducing costs and freeing valuable locomotives.
JEFFERY GUSE,
The provider and recipient class? I thought Paul Ryan swore off such language for the time being?
Really Mr. Guse… I wouldn’t mind your comments if you demanded that we raise gas taxes and tolls to pay for our highways (ever since the Bush Administration the highway trust fund as been bailed out by tax money from the general fund); and that we mandate that the FAA be entirely funded by airline fees (25% of FAA budget comes from general fund).
This could create a nation like Canada, with fewer freeways and much more expensive airline service, but that would be the price of drivers and airline passengers not being “takers” or card caring members of the “recipient class.”
Plus the vast majority of the big government spending is in Medicare and the Pentagon. Personally I think both are important and wouldn’t mind paying a bit more in taxes out of my meager wages to support them.
As for private insurance, no one where I work who isn’t a manager as it, because it costs over $60 a week for an individual, and $200 for a family… how are housekeepers and bellhops to afford that?
I am a strong believer in the free market system for things like the production and sale of razor blades (an important lesson of Orwell’s 1984)… and of course our freight railroads.
However, I be glad that if (like Canada… with its healthy economy and low national debt) we had a bit more “socialism” with our healthcare, I would gladly pay $30 a week into that program if it covered both granmom and me!
When examining intercity rail you have to look at the greater economic effect of the service to see if the subsidy is justifiable, apparently Scott Walker thinks at least that the Milwaukee-Chicago service is, despite axing the Talgo deal.
After with big fanfare he throw the $810 million of fed money back to the USDOT, he then asked for $150 million a few months later from the feds for p
As one who can remember the North Shore, the CNW, and the Milwaukee, all of which ran basically what is now called corridor service between Milw. and Chic. one’s choices depended upon timetable and where one wanted to board and get off the train in either city. And there were diners on certain trains, even the 75 minute schedules.
What could you expect from Guse, Vasyl? This bozo is in Never, Neverland. Sounds like he’s enamored with Ayn Rand.