Passenger Trains > "Fourth in a Series: Amtrak’s Impossible Demands"

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/intercity/fourth-in-a-series-amtraks-impossible-demands/

Nice segue to my previous post!  Thank you Lurch!  You always have excellent posts, and love your occasional sarcastic humor!

Ride 'em while you can.

   Ross Rowland 

Amtrak's management should be tied to the flag poles in front of Washington, DC Union Station and then flogged!   Yes, I believe in shaming and corporal punishment.  These idiots have no idea what a passenger train is, how to sell it, nor what attracts the public to ride their trains.  Total arrogance.  

Amtrak's board and upper management have become nothing more than petty bureaucrats whose main
goal is to glom up as much taxpayer funding as possible while doing as little as possible with it...partly
because they don't know how best to use it.

 

MEKoch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amtrak's management should be tied to the flag
> poles in front of Washington, DC Union Station and
> then flogged!   Yes, I believe in shaming and
> corporal punishment.  These idiots have no idea
> what a passenger train is, how to sell it, nor
> what attracts the public to ride their trains. 
> Total arrogance. 

Arrogance or following orders? Maybe both. There is an even bigger flag pole at 1600 Pennsy Ave.  

RRBaron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Arrogance or following orders? Maybe both. There
> is an even bigger flag pole at 1600 Pennsy
> Ave.  

Why would the Obama appointees that run Amtrak follow those orders?

Nomad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RRBaron Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> Why would the Obama appointees that run Amtrak
> follow those orders?

They want to keep their jobs like everyone else during these fretful times of "hoaxes" real or imagined. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/20 16:44 by RRBaron.

This whole plan is intentually designed to kill off our LD trains and pacify the Class one freight railroads who want Amtrak service gone from their property. Flynn and Anderson's crafty staff are merely continuing Anderson's M.O. 
"Turn out the lights, the party's over. "

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amtrak's board and upper management have become
> nothing more than petty bureaucrats whose main
> goal is to glom up as much taxpayer funding as
> possible while doing as little as possible with
> it...partly
> because they don't know how best to use it.
>
>

Amtrak's survival as a bureaucratic shell, officially a government-sponsored corporation, is never in doubt. After all, a government program is the closest thing we have here on earth to eternal life. In the memorable phrasing of Jim Coston, "The agency-company has the metabolism of a simple, hardy fungus that thrives luxuriantly as long as it stays in the dank crack between the governmental and commercial sectors."

https://www.joc.com/passenger-trains-yes_19970728.html

On the other hand, whether Amtrak succeeds or fails in its stated mission to provide a national rail system, operated in the public interest, is very much an open question right now. 

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA

The above posts all provide excellent reasons, if you haven’t done so already, to:

A) join the Rail Passengers Association as our best weapon to preserve long distance trains and,

B) speak out to your elected officials in DC and to your local mayors and town/city councils (especially in small towns on LD routes) and point out they are about to loose an essential resource for their community. 

Motivating local governments (whose calls to their congressional representatives are taken more seriously than yours or mine) has proven to be an effective strategy in past campaigns to save the Southwest Chief and the Sunset Limited from extinction.

John Webb
Trinidad, CA

co614 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ride 'em while you can.
>
>    Ross Rowland 


Been there, done that Chicken Little!

Posted from Android

Winnemucca Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The above posts all provide excellent reasons, if
> you haven’t done so already, to:
>
> A) join the Rail Passengers Association as our
> best weapon to preserve long distance trains and,
>
> B) speak out to your elected officials in DC and
> to your local mayors and town/city councils
> (especially in small towns on LD routes) and point
> out they are about to loose an essential resource
> for their community. 
>
> Motivating local governments (whose calls to their
> congressional representatives are taken more
> seriously than yours or mine) has proven to be an
> effective strategy in past campaigns to save the
> Southwest Chief and the Sunset Limited from
> extinction.

John, I'm part of it and the thing is it's going down to the wire with 11 days left in Fiscal 2021, Amtrak already is planning on their 3 days a week plans because I got a call at work to change my return trip back to Flagstaff on no. 4 in December, I've sent letters like everyone else has, so tell me when this is all over will it be worth joining NARP if nothing happens within 11 days!

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/20 18:12 by ProAmtrak.

The clowns in Congress and Amtrak could care less what governors, mayors, constituents, employees, or anyone else needs or desires.  NARP or us writing letters all day long to our congressional people were probably immediately thrown away.  Most of those p[eople have not a clue what Amtrak even does and have never rode two feet on an Amtrak passenger train.  That Congress is apparently going to allow LDT's to provide nothing 3 days a week will kill LDT Amtrak service.

With RBG’s passing, if you think anything OTHER than and complete and total excrement show fighting over her replacement is going to go on inside Congress for the rest of this year, please send me some of what you are smoking! Amtrak now more than ever is little more than a pimple on the posterior of political priorities.

Posted from iPhone

exactly.  congress will be very busy in the near future................

66 

Amtrak is finished.  The LD trains will go quickly, by spring.  Gone forever, and Canada will be right behind us.  There is little hope, honestly.  Congress does not care.  I called my senators and got nothing from them.  Both are dems and they don't seem to care one whit.

Once the LD trains go, senators will no longer support Amtrak because most states will have no service at all.  That kills the corridors unless states pick up the tab.  That includes the NE Corridor.  So watch for transportation block grants to states to support regional rail and corridors that cross state lines, but nothing for anything else.

And that will be the end of Amtrak.  

May I please be wrong.

 

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Congress does not care.  I called my
> senators and got nothing from them.  Both are
> dems and they don't seem to care one whit.

As I've said many times, voting based on train issues in 2020 is a waste, and what you say support my speculation. Not surprising in a society full of political nervous breakdowns. :-)

> Once the LD trains go, senators will no longer
> support Amtrak because most states will have no
> service at all.  That kills the corridors unless
> states pick up the tab.  That includes the NE
> Corridor.

You've posted some compelling Amtrak conspiracies here before, so you might have an interesting reply to what I'll say. We'll find out for sure whether revenues from LD trains + government subsidies is what props up the "profitable" NEC or not. We'll also find out for sure whether the "tri-weekly" idea will kill off more revenue, and thus start Amtrak's death spiral. While I'm convinced that is true, maybe Gardner/Anderson/Flynn know better?

That's in addition to Amtrak potentially losing political support for killing the LD trains. While I'll love for that to happen to force regime change within Amtrak, they'll try to cheat their way to preserve the NEC.

> And that will be the end of Amtrak.  
>
> May I please be wrong.

It was mentioned before that SW Chief Bus Bridge was a political poker to save the LD trains. Here's a variation to that theory. Maybe it was used to bluff Congress into supporting Amtrak, to get more NEC funding? Using that logic, "tri-weekly" could be a bluff by Gardner to do more of that, to threaten the National Network to get more NEC funding. A previous thread discussing Amtrak wanting "emergency" $1.5 billion for the NEC supports my theory. I did research on Gardner's background before, and I'm convinced he thinks NEC is his model railroad.

If my theory is true, his bluff won't work this time, due to the current political hysteria where no one is watching the Amtrak poker game. You won't get your wish - you may be right.

scraphauler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With RBG’s passing, if you think anything OTHER
> than and complete and total excrement show
> fighting over her replacement is going to go on
> inside Congress for the rest of this year, please
> send me some of what you are smoking! Amtrak now
> more than ever is little more than a pimple on the
> posterior of political priorities.

Indeed, Amtrak is a very small pimple on a "morbidly obese" caboose. BTW, we are now smoking "Chaparral Grandes" here in LA-LA-LAND!
 

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amtrak is finished.  The LD trains will go
> quickly, by spring.  Gone forever, and Canada
> will be right behind us.  There is little hope,
> honestly.  Congress does not care.  I called my
> senators and got nothing from them.  Both are
> dems and they don't seem to care one whit.
>
> Once the LD trains go, senators will no longer
> support Amtrak because most states will have no
> service at all.  That kills the corridors unless
> states pick up the tab.  That includes the NE
> Corridor.  So watch for transportation block
> grants to states to support regional rail and
> corridors that cross state lines, but nothing for
> anything else.
>
> And that will be the end of Amtrak.  
>
> May I please be wrong.
>
>  
Sir, you have summed it up well ! Thank you.