Passenger Trains > Happy Birthday Amtrak.

Happy birthday Amtrak. You are now 44 years old. Congrdulations. I hope you will be here another 44 years or more .PARTY TIME.

Yes. An important day. I'll celebrate with a ride from Omaha to Emeryville on Sunday's California Zephyr.

Posted from Android

Forty-Four years ago I took my First Amtrak ride; New York Penn Station to Columbus Ohio on the Penn Texas. It was combined with another train for part of the journey. I had a bedroom (PRR Sleeper), unfortunately, the club car was a PRR Pullman Lounge. The usually comfortable Pullman Lounge was too small for the crowd aboard that train.

It satisfies me greatly knowing that Amtrak turned out to be a lot tougher than the politicians who tried to kill it.

Happy Birthday Amtrak!  Many more happy years for you to continue on for!

Chris

Happy BD Amtrak. And many more to come, altho we'll have to fight the political fight to make them happen!

John Webb
Trinidad, CA

Happy 44th Birthday, Amtrak!  John Webb is right --
we have to fight the politicians every year to help
you survive.  What a shame.  But you soldier on --
and I appreciate that.  Kudos to all the good employees
who make riding you a pleasure.

44 years old, and ready for assisted living.

Yes Margaret, it's a shame that after 44 years we still have to fight the politicians every year just to have a basic national passenger rail system. Unfortunately, some still think of Amtrak as some social program rather than part of the nation's transportation network.

Posted from iPhone

In my opinion the National Railroad Passenger Corporation/Amtrak is our nation wide national treasure.Not just a Northeast Corridor project So to our polititians and Joeseph Boardman please Adeqitlly fund and expand Amtrak as such. And Amtrak needs to hopefully be here to stay.

As much as Amtrak is the favored scape goat and whipping boy for so many people, here's a list of service improvements that Amtrak has brought to us over the years that WERE NOT furnished by the private-sector railroads:

<> Consolidation of all operations in Chicago and New York into one station.

<> A computerized reservations and ticketing system, plus an impressive inter-active website.

<> One seat service between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.  For awhile there was one-seat service from St. Louis to Milwaukee.  Although no longer in service, we were treated to one train running from Los Angeles to Orlando.

<> Increased frequencies on the Capital Corridor, San Joaquin, Talgo Cascade, Pacific Surfliner and Downeaster line segments, in some cases with large feeder bus networks.  Granted, these were due to interest by the states, but Amtrak still played a big role in getting them up and running.  

<> Although no longer in service, we were treated to turbo trains on selected routes in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Maryland and West Virginia.

<> Santa Fe "Hi Level" technology on non-Santa Fe routes.

<> Better track quality on the line segments that are owned by Amtrak.

This list is not all-inclusive.  Anyone care to add any more examples?

 

 

Many new stations have been buillt and older ones have been rebuilt. 
Stations and trains are now handicapped accessible.
 

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As much as Amtrak is the favored scape goat and
> whipping boy for so many people, here's a list of
> service improvements that Amtrak has brought to us
> over the years that WERE NOT furnished by the
> private-sector railroads:
>
> <> Consolidation of all operations in Chicago and
> New York into one station.
>
> <> A computerized reservations and ticketing
> system, plus an impressive inter-active website.
>
> <> One seat service between San Diego and San Luis
> Obispo.  For awhile there was one-seat service
> from St. Louis to Milwaukee.  Although no longer
> in service, we were treated to one train running
> from Los Angeles to Orlando.
>
> <> Increased frequencies on the Capital Corridor,
> San Joaquin, Talgo Cascade, Pacific Surfliner and
> Downeaster line segments, in some cases with large
> feeder bus networks.  Granted, these were due to
> interest by the states, but Amtrak still played a
> big role in getting them up and running.  
>
> <> Although no longer in service, we were treated
> to turbo trains on selected routes in Wisconsin,
> Illinois, Missouri, New York, Maryland and West
> Virginia.
>
> <> Santa Fe "Hi Level" technology on non-Santa Fe
> routes.
>
> <> Better track quality on the line segments that
> are owned by Amtrak.
>
> This list is not all-inclusive.  Anyone care to
> add any more examples?
>
>  
>
>  
Amtrak played a small role in the expansion of California services, and in some cases, played a negative role, as when it adopted the Mercer study recommending, among other things, the elimination of the Capitol Corridor in 1994.  I would describe Amtrak as a skeptical player. 

I would have hoped that Amtrak would have developed plans for similar services elsewhere, with proposed budgets, and then attempted to make them happen.  But that generally has not been the case.  Even Amtrak's Thruway bus service is lackluster.

I have to agree with Reindeer's post on assistant living sicne it seems now the leadership is doing what Congress tried to do in 74 which got derailed because of the energy crisis in 73, kill Amtrak, especially the LD Trains!

< Amtrak played a small role in the expansion of California services, and in some cases, played a negative role, as when it adopted the Mercer study recommending, among other things, the elimination of the Capitol Corridor in 1994. I would describe Amtrak as a skeptical player. >

Tom Downs & Company decided to check their brains to Mercer Consulting and go on the arithmetic, fictitious exercise of distributing Fully Allocated Costs, so as to intimate an undergrad Managerial Accounting exercise and give themselves a phony sense of order. Atlantic City, Keystone, and Hiawatha were also all put on death row as a result, all saved in some form by their states. Basically, shorter corridors were disproportionately hit with fixed charges that they were not entirely directly responsible for. When services disappeared, the costs were merely reallocated to what remained. From that point on, Incremental Accounting from the Claytor era, who had above-the-rail farebox recovery at 79.9%, was out the window.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/15 14:06 by joemvcnj.

Happy Birthday Amtrak.....Hard to believe you are 44...

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> < Amtrak played a small role in the expansion of
> California services, and in some cases, played a
> negative role, as when it adopted the Mercer study
> recommending, among other things, the elimination
> of the Capitol Corridor in 1994. I would describe
> Amtrak as a skeptical player. >
>
> Tom Downs & Company decided to check their brains
> to Mercer Consulting and go on the arithmetic,
> fictitious exercise of distributing Fully
> Allocated Costs, so as to intimate an undergrad
> Managerial Accounting exercise and give themselves
> a phony sense of order. Atlantic City, Keystone,
> and Hiawatha were also all put on death row as a
> result, all saved in some form by their states.
> Basically, shorter corridors were
> disproportionately hit with fixed charges that
> they were not entirely directly responsible for.
> When services disappeared, the costs were merely
> reallocated to what remained. From that point on,
> Incremental Accounting from the Claytor era, who
> had above-the-rail farebox recovery at 79.9%, was
> out the window.
>  

And it's been downhill ever since! All that work Claytor and Co,. did just got wasted and everyone's wondering when will Amtrak thrive again! Not until they get good leadership!