Thank you, John. Of course this is the sort of stuff I’m supposed to be writing for This Week at Amtrak. Don’t tell my publisher.
Yes the ebb and flow of politics is well documented. But there is also the shifting ethos of the nation to take into consideration. When NRPC was conceived the public thought we were within a decade of vacationing on the moon. It was a time of plenty and the answer to all questions was “more.”
Today these are very different times.
The national paradigm has shifted almost 180 degrees. The common citizen no longer sees himself as rich or capable of attaining riches. The age of austerity is upon our collective psyche. Recently a mandated grouping of encompassing financial cuts befell the Federal Government. It received some press but now the national conversation is engrossed with marriage and guns (which in my neck of the woods is one in the same, but I digress…). Everyone feels they need to make cutbacks in their lives and this has been re
I’d wager that most don’t care one way or another and I know that most don’t say a word either way.
Its not that they hate Amtrak or anything. They’re being smart. People have no concept of money beyond a few hundred thousand dollars. I mean, that’s how much a house costs. A number like $300 million sounds like a giant mountain of money, because in day to day life that is a giant mountain of money. But in terms of a national government (that’s not some mudhole third world country) that’s literally a peanut.
Take that rover we just landed on Mars. It cost $2.65 billion, if you see what the news said. Well…it didn’t. It costs $2.65b to research, design, build, operate, and staff. Over eight years. That’s $330 million a year, averaged out (some years are more expensive than others). Seems like a huge pile of money. Except NASA’s budget over that eight years exceeded $136 billion. Which also seems like a giant pile of money.
I agree. However, in the Republican Primary John Mica found himself up against Sandy Adams. She attacked him because he not only supported Florida’s Sunrail program; he also had his picture taken with Barak Obama. He won the primary but he knew his politIcal wounds were still oozing and he needed to stop the bleeding. After all, 2 years (now less than 2 years) is not all that far off. He needs to restore his credibility with the tea partiers in his district. And Amtrack was handy.
There is a nice essay somewhere out in the ether (some of it here: http://www.trainweb.com/travel/stevelog/sg_tr_sw.htm ) that tells the story of how the sec. of DOT during the Nixon admin worked with Congress and pushed the Railpax bill through over the objections of most of the White House staff. It seems there were three sets of “common wisdom” at that time. 1. Don’t do it. 2. It’s just a pretext for failure 3. It can morph into something useful. (this one included the notion that Amtrak would further cut the LD network, develop corridors and come out covering operating costs)
Nobody expected what actually happened. Preservation of LD network. Little investment in corridors. Increasing levels of subsidy.
As you may be aware, many American cities have traffic issues. Atlanta is one of them. Some days, I drive to work on highly subsidized interstate highways. They are terribly congested when I go. I want to help fix the problem.
Here’s my solution. I’d like the Federal Gov’t to collect an additional one cent tax (just a single penny!) from every income tax filer and pay it to me in exchange for a vow that I will never again use any highway during rush hour. I’ll leave my car in the garage except during off-peak hours.
Here are the benefits:
reduced highway congestion
Improved air quality
Improved quality of life
Reduced reliance on foreign oil
Reduced need for fire/police/ambulance
Reduced need for subsidized highway maintenance
Selling points:
The total cost is much much less than an Abrams main battle tank.
I am a US citizen and deserving government benefits
The per person tax burden is exceedingly tiny, compared to other things the government buys
The government has many similar programs, like farmers being paid not to grow certain crops.
As you may be aware, many American cities have traffic issues. Atlanta is one of them. Some days, I drive to work on highly subsidized interstate highways. They are terribly congested when I go. I want to help fix the problem.
Here’s my solution. I’d like the Federal Gov’t to collect an additional one cent tax (just a single penny!) from every income tax filer and pay it to me in exchange for a vow that I will never again use any highway during rush hour. I’ll leave my car in the garage except during off-peak hours.
Here are the benefits:
reduced highway congestion
Improved air quality
Improved quality of life
Reduced reliance on foreign oil
Reduced need for fire/police/ambulance
Reduced need for subsidized highway maintenance
Selling points:
The total cost is much much less than an Abrams main battle tank.
I am a US citizen and deserving government benefits
The per person tax burden is exceedingly tiny, compared to other things the government buys
The government has many similar programs, like farmers being paid not to grow certain crops.
The essay is based on a biography of John Volpe by Kathleen Kilgore. Ms Kilgore has written a number of books. The ones that come up again and again are the Volpe biography, The Wolfman of Beacon Hill and The Ghost-Maker. The last two are novels for young readers.
It would be helpful to know her credentials for the Volpe biography.
We can look at this the other way around. Atlanta has about 5M people. 100,000 get on or off the Crescent each year. Assuming each is a one way trip, it would take 50 years for everyone for a train ride, assuming everyone only rode once. Cost per person = 18*50 = $900. Or, they could take the money and fly a round trip to Europe.
But so far Amtrak is still with us. Either the anti Amtrakers will prevail and we will loose our national passenger rail service or they will not prevail and we will keep it.
Does Amtrak = all domestic passenger rail service? Are there really no alternatives? Amtrak would have all think so. But as we say down south “It ain’t what you don’t know, it’s what you know that just ain’t so.”
No, Amtrak is not the only provider of passenger rail service. There is extensive commuter rail service in the north east and other posters write about it in other parts of the country. But certainly there are large parts of Amtrak where there is no alternative rail service. For example, Amtrak service is suspended between Jacksonville, FL and New Orleans and there is no alternative rail service.
But does Amtrak (and only Amtrak) have to operate all the services they operate? Passenger rail is a growth industry for the first time in almost seven decades. Does passenger rail have to be a ward of the state in perpetuity? Remember, it didn’t start off that way.
Yes, I remember when passenger rail was not operated by Amtrak. I remember it well. Those were the days when I would stand from Providence to New Haven. I do not want to return to those bad old days.
Of course passenger rail does not have to be a ward of the state. All that is needed is a private company willing to operate it. But I know of no such companies now or in the foreseeable future. Do you know of any? Never say never so I wouldn’t rule it out. But I don’t really expect it in my lifetime.