Dave: Your post of someone’s Yahoo e-mail will not display properly. So:
Wick’s winter of discontentWritten by Frank N. Wilner, Contributing Editor
For newly minted Amtrak Preside
But possibly this should be deleted. Did not realize Randy was posting from Railway Age. Is posting this article legal and/or moral? Possibly the Moderator should review the situation?
Doubtful. People repost articles all the time, usually with links. It’s free marketing for RA.
(from the RA article):
"Moreover, it has passively allowed Amtrak senior management to ignore the loss of significant numbers of Northeast Corridor passengers to intercity bus operators offering more frequent departures and competitive trip times. "
My guess is price has been the bigger factor (in the NEC), as with discount buses in Europe and the UK – cheaper, though somewhat slower and less comfortable – appealing to younger, budget-minded passengers. Different deal with Megabus in the Midwest.
The NEC should be looked at as part of the long distance train network as a Terminal Railroad. Many long distance passengers start or end there trips on the corridor so seperating the costs as just in the Northeast Corridor is a mistake…Not building other High Speed Corridors that string close cities together is also a problem since Amtrak tends to only benifit east coast and Chicagoland passengers. Certainly a midwest electric corridor is needed and if California does not fall into the Ocean because of her sins (Hollywood Types) we will will see a west coast high speed corridor soon as well.