It was 34 years ago today (May 1st 1971) that Amtrak was established. I’m sorry to see that it’s in the financial state and all that it’s in, but wish it well, and hope that it’s still around 34 years from now.
trainluver1
Yes I hope so too 
Well I guess all I have to say to this one is. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .hummmm … lets see. . . . . . . . .Happy B-day Amtrak.
If Amtrak doesn’t make some drastic changes I would almost bet it won’t see a fortieth birthday. Amtrak should have kept the best of the Heritage cars for pewak travel periods, instead they were to anxious to let them go after the deferred maintenace they had been subjected to. Not enough of the heritage fleet was converted to HEP instead Amtrak was to anxious to replace all of these cars with the resulting shortages they suffer today. Canada is doing a much better job of keeping their old Budd cars operational and have many for expanded service during peak travel periods. Amtrak has no reserves for peak travel periods and this is why they find themselves with many of the problems they face today. All that was needed for the Budd cars and some of the others to operate with Superliners was transition cars. The P-42 diesels assigned to trains like the Empire Builder are capable of pulling more than a eight to ten car train at track speed. Summers they could add Budds to the rear of the Amtrak trains to fifteen or sixteen car trains still within two P42’s capabilities. I think if I hear that the Northeast Corridor is Amtrak one more time I’m going to scream. Write your Congressman and Senator tell them we need Amtrak and give them the necessary funding for five years and lets see if rail ridership picks up. I’m tired of phoning Amtrak weeks in advance to book a trip and be told it is all sold out. If the trains are all sold out then it doesn’t take a genius to figure out we need more new equipment. So lets order it and stop playing political football with Amtrak. Any surly Amtrak employees with customers will be given one warning and a second incident will result in dismissal or they will be required to take a course in customer relations lasting two weeks minimum at their own expense. Most Amtrak on board employees are great, but others should not be in contact with the public. More emphasis should be placed on the train being part of the vacation instead of transportation only. The fares for what the public is ge
Amtrak Needs about 1200 New Cars like 500 New Superliners, 150 New Viewliner Coaches, 50 New Viewliner Diner, 50 Viewliner Lounge Cars, 50 more Viewliner Sleeping Cars, 50 New Baggage Cars, and 350 New Corridor Cars.[:D]
[:D]Yes Happy Bday +1 day [:p][:)]
[quote]
Originally posted by trainluver1
Amtrak will out live all of us here.[:D]
Add my Happy Birthday wishes too …
passengerfan You hit the nail on the head, couldn’t have said it better myself. We both know about the quality experience with ViA Rail and the deteriorating “service” and “attitudes” with some Amtrak employees.
As I embark upon my week of riding trains in Canada, I’ll be thinking of how nice it would be to travel that way in my own country. Those streamlliner Budd cars of the “Ocean” await! Two round trips for the entire route … probably no birthday cake, but a “few” Alexander Keith’s Pale Ale from Halifax up in the Park Car observatiion dome … Ahhhhhhh
See y’all later! [tup] [;)]
[bday] Amtrak!!! I hope they have more to come
kevin
I was born two months after Amtrak. Makes it easy to remember.[8D]
Well, happy birthday, Amtrak!
The whole Amtrak issue is a pretty controversial one and while Amtrak obviously does have some serious problems, I’m not sure what should be done about them. However, if you look at the whole 30 years that Amtrak has been around, they have come a VERY, VERY LONG WAY from where they were in 1971! You have to give them credit for that!
However, if we’re looking at the issue historically, I will go on the record as saying that Amtrak should never have been formed in the first place. I’ve always felt that what should have been done instead of Amtrak would be to set up a program where the government compensated the railroads for their passenger losses instead of running the passenger trains themselves. Of course, such a program would not be quite as simple as that, but in my opinion it would have been much, much better than forming Amtrak! Of course, we’ve gone way too far to change what should have been done in the past, so we’ll just have try to make the best of what we’ve got…
I truly wonder if Amtrak will survive . A friend returned from a vacation in Britain and France today. He rode the train through the Chunnel both ways between London and Paris. Said he thought it was expensive like 150 euros but the upgrade to first class was only 30 euros. Said the train traveled at up to 186 mph and took three hours between the two capitals. Why is it that this country can’t get off their a** and provide similar services the european passenger trains aren’t making any money either but they are providing service and people are using the trains in those countries. And yes they have a freeway system as well and pay twice as much for gasoline as we do but they ride those trains. If Japan and Europe can provide excellent rail service then it is time probably past time that this the so called greatest country in the world provide service at least on par with the Europeans and Japanese. When I listened to this friend not a railfan rave about the trains in Europe , I knew we were missing the boat.
This is more for passenger fan. There is no good answer to your question why the US can’t provide high speed rail services like those in Japan in Europe. First of all the United States is not Europe with its relatively short distances between major cities and its dense urban populations. Nevertheless there are corridors where high speed passenger rail might be viable provided their travel times are competitive with flying. But the recent structural defects in the Acela Expresses (the cracks in the yaw damper mounting mechanisms in 2002 and the cracks in the brake disks) have dealt a setback to high speed passenger rail service in the United States.
An editorial in the May 3, Washington Post called for an end to Amtrak as we now know it. They called for reforms such as closing down uneconomic routes and better management.
The Washington Post is out of touch with the people who ride the trains.
Again, Bush asking the Prince of the most undemocratic and authoritarian country on the face of the planet to lower oil price should really answer the question.
Eisenhower warned agains the power of the military-industrial complex. Better he should have warned again the greater and more damaging power of the auto-highway-oil complex.
The Washington Post may not be as out of touch with the reality of passenger train riders and long distance trains as you might think. The FY ’03 and FY ’04 revenue from long distance trains was 28% of Amtrak’s total revenue while their ridership amounted to only 16% of Amtrak’s total ridership in both fiscal years. However, the long distance trains accounted for 72% of Amtrak’s FY’03 operating losses and 77% of its FY ’04 operating losses.
Amtrak carried approximately 24 million passengers in FY ‘03 and approximately 25 million passengers in FY’04. In FY 1991 Amtrak carried a little over 22 million passengers. However, the number of passengers alone is not the standard metric of ridership, it is passenger miles. Amtrak achieved its highest level of passenger miles in FY 1991, 6.07 billion passenger miles with 22.2 million passengers; this translates into an average length of journey of approximately 285 miles. Amtrak’s passenger miles were approximately 5.5 billion in FY ‘03 and approximately 5.6 billion in FY ‘04 for an average journey length of 220 miles. This indicates Amtrak’s increase in ridership was in the Northeast Corridor and in the short to medium distance trains rather than in the long distance trains.
I used FY ‘03 data rather than FY ‘04 data to level the playing field since FY’03 presented a more stable operating environment in that there were no serious service disruptions during that period. During the FY’04 period four hurricanes hit Florida which caused severe damage that shut down all rail service in that state for a long time. The way things have gone so far this year I would not want to use FY 2005 data for comparisons. First there were mudslides at many places on the ex SP Coast Line that made it necessary to annul the Coast Starlight for nearly two months, and to annul some of the Surfliner trains as well. Then there was the brake disk crack problem that sidetracked the Acela Express train sets.
What to do? Amtrak’s figures show, their long
All one has to do is look at the long distance service provided by Amtrak .
The Empire Builder one train daily pre Amtrak two trains daily and on other routes across the Northern Plains there was four trains daily prior to Amtrak The Empire Builder, Western Star/Fast Mail, Mainstreeter and North Coast Limited.
The California Zephyr one trains daily. Pre Amtrak their was two trains the City of San Francisco tri-weekly and the daily San Francisco Chief.
The Southwest Chief prior to Amtrak there was the Super Chief/El Capitan, Grand Canyon, City of Los Angeles/Challenger/City of Kansas City.
The Tri-weekly Sunset Limited prior to Amtrak their was also a tri-weekly Sunset.
Coast Starlight prior to Amtrak this was a neglected route and passengers between Seattle and Los Angeles had to change trains three times in route.
If we are going to operate western long distance services then at least two daily trains twelve hours apart would certainly provide better than what we have today. It would not hurt to have extra cars during peak travel periods as it is getting more and more difficult to find sleeping car space on any of these western trains without reserving months in advance.
Passengerfan.
So well stated! Many of those Budd cars were in good condition! I remember when so many of them were rebuilt in the 80s. To this day I still state that their riding characteristics and comfort were superior to the Amfleet II cars. Amtrak cited increased maintenance costs, but here’s Amtrak today with a very painful car shortage. I still have photos of the Silver Meteor running 15 cars long back in 1981!
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but was not one of the issues of the Heritage cars the restroom retrofit to meet new EPA standards? Amtrak didn’t want to spend the money, (or didn’t have it to spend!). Yet, our Canadian friends manage to keep their Heritage cars looking new.
I do hope that the LD trains will continue. More senators are voicing support for Amtrak, and not just the NEC.
Alertness is also imperative as there was a recent news report that a crude sketch of Grand Central Terminal’s interior was found in a captured terrorist’s apartment or hotel room!
As Earl Pitts hollers everyday on the radio: “Wake up, America!”