Western Railroad Discussion > Oil fields help Amtrak

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/07/166713212/amtraks-empire-builder-line

Confirms my observation on a couple of trips this year, I met several passengers going to/from those stations.
They seemed to be politically conservative/libertarian in outlook but glad to have the government service, another love/hate conflict?
Thanks for the link.

They might have been just as happy to have the service if it had been private. In which case there wouldn't have been much potential conflict.

to bad there are no tex colo ne mt trains

Then we've got the FIFO business much as being done in the iron ore mines in Australia. Menard's (Midwest answer to Home Depot)
is doing a FIFO (fly in, fly out) for employees in their North Dakota stores from the Minneapolis area. Talk about a commute!

railstiesballast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Confirms my observation on a couple of trips this
> year, I met several passengers going to/from those
> stations.
> They seemed to be politically
> conservative/libertarian in outlook but glad to
> have the government service, another love/hate
> conflict?

I rode the Builder last spring, happened to be on a weekend. Whether they were conservative, libertarian, or whatever, most of the passengers getting on at those stations were either drunk when they got on, or headed for the lounge car immediatly upon boarding. It got a little rowdy by the time we got to East Glacier. The train crew said that was pretty typical.