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Bipartisan passenger rail legislation introduced
Congress, Amtrak is not a business, it is a public service and should be treated as such, in my opinion.
Here we go again. Making a square peg fit into a round hole with a sledge hammer. Political idealism versus realities. Rhetorical merry go rounds…etc, etc.
“Eliminate Amtrak’s losses in food and beverage service” – not that again! Paying premium fares in the sleepers should come with better food service. People will not want to pay premium fares for worse-than-airline food, which is what it has become sometimes.
Anything that Denham has his hands in will come to no good for passenger train supporters.
Loren,
Absolutely correct.
Do those (depracating expletive repleted) clowns expect our local and state highway transportation departments, ,the NHTSC, the FAA, their air traffic control employes and systems,.there’s more…to be sure…do they want those operations, bureaus departments “to operate like a business.”
IfI not, why not?
I see 'em as agencies which provide services and money to businesses.
What’s Amtrak?.
The funding barely adequate to maintain existing service, let alone grow and eliminating food and beverage losses probably isn’t practical. I do hope though that Amtrak will improve their accounting and transparency so we can see where the money is actually going.
Yes, Congress, your job is to micromanage a business if that business is unprofitable because of other entirely unrelated decisions you keep making. It’s entirely right that you should demand one part that you don’t understand suddenly become profitable. I also hope you’ll force the cleaning department to make a profit too.
Amtrak doesn’t make losses because of its food service. Amtrak’s food service is why it’s not even less profitable. Amtrak makes losses because it runs trains for a variety of reasons, almost none of which have to do with the likelihood of profitability. To make Amtrak profitable, you’re going to have to ask yourselves what want out of the service. Do you want the country to be covered by a comprehensive, token, or no passenger service?
For most of Amtrak’s history, you’ve chosen the middle option. The first (probably) will make even more losses, but will result in an Amtrak that makes a significant difference to the quality of lives of all Americans. If you choose the latter, you’ll simply increase government spending on other forms of transportation, in a likely disproportionate way, and reduce the available options available.
What “eliminating food service losses” won’t do is make Amtrak profitable. It’ll do the opposite, just as eliminating cleaning service losses would do.
Well said Paul. I would also suggest that while a comprehensive service would probably lose more money in total, it may lose less per passenger-mile and avoid more than it costs in other transportation spending.
Loren: I agree with you 1,000%!
Several previous comments are very well stated. Amtrak has been and continues to be a political play toy. Congress has been micro-managing it since its inception. Instead of viable rail service as we see in Europe and Asia, we’re left with a hodge-podge of inadequate service, relatively high prices, and inferior food service. Numerous fast food chains and restaurants make profits by selling a reasonable product at a reasonable price. Yet Amtrak sells questionable products at inflated prices and “losses” money. The problem, Dear Congress, ISN’T a result of the price of the food.
It’s about time Congress began providing the rail service a First World Country deserves instead of marginal, at best, service. Is it really such a mystery that ridership on once a day trains is minimal at rural locations when the only service occurs between 1 AM and 5 AM? Look at some of the “cities” served and you’ll understand why the service isn’t popular–some of the stops are 20-40 miles away from the cities supposedly “served”. How is anyone supposed to arrange for transportation in the middle of the night from an out-of-the-way spot?
{}Amtrak run like a business?};lets say like the airlines which as is the case here in Tulsa the airport board gives millions of bucks waiving landing and gate fees to try to attract new non stop service.
It is easy for the airlines to make money as long as fuel prices are low because us the taxpayer pays for the whole national network of nav and weather services.
Amtrak’s rationalization of food service is going to drive sleeping car passengers away and unfortunatly Amtrak management and especially anti Amtrak politicians know it