After 35 Years, Amtrak's Future Uncertain

[Haole Girl]

After 35 Years, Amtrak's Future Uncertain

By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer
10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Last year, President Bush proposed no federal aid for Amtrak. Its highly touted high-speed train was sidelined for months with brake problems and its president was fired. Still, the passenger railroad chugs on toward its 35th birthday Monday.

To mark the occasion, a group of analysts who have followed Amtrak's woes over the years will gather in Washington to discuss what critics call Amtrak's "35 years of subsidies, waste and deception."

"Amtrak keeps making promises that things would get better, one promise after another," said Joseph Vranich, a former Amtrak spokesman and former member of the Amtrak Reform Council. "But people fall for the promises, and Amtrak survives...

Amtrak has debt of more than $3.5 billion and its operating loss for 2005 topped $550 million...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060429/ap_on_bi_ge/amtrak_at35

[katinmn]

1. They have been trying to kill it through starvation

What a horrible shame.

I took the Empire Builder to Seattle earlier this month. Staff are hanging in there but thoroughly demoralized.

I would gladly fully fund AmTrak. It would represent an unnoticeable pittance out of the Petagon's killing budget.

[MadMaddie]

2. The * Cabal has wanted to destroy Amtrack......since forever!!

[valerief]

3. This is shameful. We need more railways, not fewer, for mass transit.

I rode the Acela recently. It was great. Much less stressful than airport travel, even if it does take longer. More time to read, think, nap, and stretch your legs.

[Coventina]

4. We should be massively investing in electric rail.

Does it make any sense to de-commission our passenger train system with the oil situation as it is?

We should be investing in it. After all, once the oil runs out, we won't have airplanes anymore. Unless a new technology can be invented for them.

[valerief]

5. I guess the high price of oil is what's motivating the oil pigs to

make an electric-run Amtrak totter to the brink.

[dorktv]

6. how odd...I just suggested that the AZ State Lege do something

about creating a hi speed train system between all the major towns...since Congress et al...seem to not care.

[judaspriestess]

7. oh just lovely

I was planning on using Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver later this summer.

Tickets were like 45 dollars each way when I had called and checked.

I'm so disgusted.

[Astrad]

8. Imagine

The cost of 2 weeks in Iraq would wipe out Amtrak's debt.

[TankLV]

25. Not to mention all the BILLIONS given to now-defunct airlines!

And don't forget the BILLIONS in subsidies for ALL the OIL companies!

[Tesha]

26. Amtrak, by law, can't buy Congressmen. Oil and Air can. (NT)

[madmom]

9. My daughter took Amtrak last year, started in Chicago,to Flagstaff

to LA, to Portland Ore.,back to Chicago, then a few months later to Pittsburgh via Chicago. She absolutely LOVED it. This was all in about a 7 month period during the winter and she said she do it again in a minute.

[wakeme2008]

10. This is about BUSH and his Corp Friends.....$$$$$$$$$$$

the board of governors FIRED the man that was turning Amtrak around. WHY

Bush want to GIVE the NE MONEY making part to his FRIENDS

[ThoughtCriminal]

11. Why they hate Amtrak

It's not really the cost or an ideological objection or even that trains save gas.

A major GOP contributor, the Union Pacific Railroad has wanted Amtrak to die for many years. Dick Cheney was on the Board of Directors of U.P.. Also Treasury Secretary Snow was CEO at CSXT which I beleive would also be very happy to see Amtrak go away.

A personal note from one who rides Amtrak whenever possible. There is usually a huge service difference when riding an Amtrak train that travels over Union Pacific routes vs. a train running on BNSF trackage. When running on UP, you can usually count an late arrivals (many hours) as freight trains get priority (in violation of law). BNSF dispatchers seem to give Amtrak more favorable treatment.

[Jazzgirl]

17. BNSF does give priority to Amtrak trains.

I work for them and I know how much attention BNSF pays to Amtrak. UP.....I was always told if ya can't say anything nice......

}(

[Clovis Sangrail]

12. amtrack is their own worst enemy

I like traveling on trains but Amtrack shoots themselves in the foot.

I just looked it up and for me and my wife to travel from Ca to NY and back would cost $3983
That would be 5.5 days on the train.

I can purchase 2 complete 7 day vacation packages to Hawaii for well under $2500.
That's airfare and hotel.

They also fall down majorly on rail passes.
I wouldn't mind buying a pass and riding around seeing the country, but all of their explore america "passes" restrict travel in/out of any city to 1 time (on some 2). That's a problem when hubs have more than 2 spokes.
A pass should be a pass.

It seems like their website and fare structures were designed to limit the number of people who will use them.
(I'm not talking about commute lines)

[corporate_mike]

18. How can they lose money if they charge so much?

[Tesha]

24. I call Bullshit.

I just went to the web site and they come up with $229 each direction,
each person (with a possibility of a $184 return), so $916 for your
two person roundtrip. And if you were booking first class, well, the
airlines charge a bit more for that too.

Tesha

[HockeyMom]

13. Northeast Corridor - Absolutely Beautiful

We took it several times for my daughter's hockey tournaments, both summer and winter. It followed the Hudson River. Having grown up in NYC, I had no idea how beautiful upstate NY is off the highways. We also took it into Ma. and Vt. Again, really lovely. My daughter really loved being able to get up, walk around, go in the Dining Cars, and get off when it made stops.

You cannot see America the Beautiful on a plane or on major turnpikes.

[Disturbed]

14. The RW has been pushing for privatizing AMTRAK for...

years. The RW wants to privatize everything.

The Right Wing Agenda

Abolish &/or nueter.

Social Security
Medicare
Employer supplied health insurance
Welfare
FEMA
Gun Laws
Abortion Rights
Collective Bargaining
EPA
Public Education
Public Housing
IRS

[Vogon_Glory]

22. Norquist Has Been Wanting To Do In Amtrak For Over 20 Years

Grover Norquist has been wanting to do in Amtrak for over 20 years. I remember him cheer-leading the Reagan administration's efforts to do it in back in the 1980's. I see no reason to believe that this scruffy crew has changed their views regarding passenger rail.

[Oldtimeralso]

23. Also NeoCon agenda item

Is to eliminate labor unions, and as a vast majority of Amtrak employees and represented by organized labor it is on their hit list. Many if not most employees have gone since 2000 without a wage increase and the company refuses to bargain in good faith. The board of directors relies on an antiquated Railway Labor Act that make agreements perpetual they never expire only open for renegotiation and it does take two side to negotiate. The board also knows that if the unions do try to strike that the "president" appoints an emergency board and if the unions do not agree the congress can and will impose an agreement on them. So Amtrak's labor force is in a no win situation!

[AndyTiedye]

15. The Coast Starlight and the California Zephyr

are both beautiful train rides.

The Zephyr is the way to go between San Francisco and Denver.
Gorgeous trip through the Sierras and the Rockies.

The Coast Starlight features beautiful coastline as one would expect.
According to the schedule, it generally passes Mount Shasta at night,
but the northbound is usually running a few hours late by then. This
is a good thing, because you may get to see the sun rising over Mt. Shasta.

Don't let them shut down Amtrak!

[Laughing Mirror]

16. It turns into America the Not-so-Beautiful from NYC to DC

Unbelievable festering slums dot the trip throughout the journey, with miles after miles of abandoned ghetto rowhouses in North Philly and south into Camden, and block after block, row after row, mile after mile of them again in north Baltimore.

And then again the raggedy images streaming past your window once you get inside the Welcome to Washington sign.

Breathtaking Americana no tourist should miss!

[newswolf56]

19. And the Corporate Ruling Class continues its war against adequate...

public transport -- this as gasoline (and the operation of private automobiles) becomes ever more un-affordable. What we're witnessing, of course, is another strategy for maximum concentration of wealth -- and maximum subjugation of the working class: every one of us who is not independently wealthy. Thus is George Bush capitalism's ultimate achievement.

[Nomen Tuum]

20. Let ViaRail run Amtrak

Canadian trains are excellent. ViaRail is great service.

Since everything else has failed, I suggest that we turn Amtrak over to ViaRail and let them run it. I'll bet you'll see a massive improvement!

[CONN]

21. A few days of Iraq cost = 1 year of Amtrak

But Amtrak benefits the people who do not count