posted
Hopefully, the AARP is "leading the way" in efforts to help save Amtrak---if not, what a waste !!
From what I understand this group counts as a major Congressional lobby. I would think that an issue like Amtrak (although not perhaps as critical as Social Security and other issues) should top its list of major matters to address with Congress. The last I heard it counted over 35 million members strong.
Has the AARP "officially" adopted a stance on Amtrak ?
What amazes me as I continue to travel Amtrak is that very, very few individuals realize or believe that Amtrak is in serious trouble. As they say, many things are often not "missed" until they are gone and it is too late.
Posts: 187 | From: Pittsburgh , PA | Registered: Apr 2001
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Beyond this, Mr. Talk, I have yet to note any mention of Amtrak in AARP publications, but then, I cannot say they are the most carefully read publications to hit my mailbox (oh well, at least they don't go where the "junk' goes)
Secondly I note your following comment;
What amazes me as I continue to travel Amtrak is that very, very few individuals realize or believe that Amtrak is in serious trouble. As they say, many things are often not "missed" until they are gone and it is too late
I must raise the question "is it'?
Any advocacy group's "stock in trade' is to convince a reader that their "cause" is about to go down the drain, but with their "Herculean Efforts", and your $$$ may I add, there just might be a chance for "the cause'.
Already we see the Bush Administration "half stepping" away from the "shut 'er down' position taken in the Budget initiative. Indicative of that is Secretary of Transporation Mineta's "well, we want trains, we just want local initiatives to help pay for them" that he disseminated in the NPR radio interview, and apparently is putting forth at his various "town meetings' here and about.
My thoughts previously expressed at this Forum: the Administration has "blown its wad" of political capital it is prepared to spend on the Amtrak issue.
Now I realize, Mr. Talk, you just lost 50% of your train service there in Pittsburgh, and I also know that a group of the finest on-board service people Amtrak has have now been 'displaced'. But the "flip side" is that there was enough time, including that spanning a National Election, to develop a local initiative to fund the continuation of the Three Rivers, even if the continuation was simply to be a second PGH-HBG frequency. It seems that "we the people of Pennsylvania' want trains in the Eastern third of the State, but there is not the initiative elsewhere.
But then, don't all you Western Pennsylvanians think "the East gets it all"?
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
What amazes me as I continue to travel Amtrak is that very, very few individuals realize or believe that Amtrak is in serious trouble. As they say, many things are often not "missed" until they are gone and it is too late
Ah that just might be the legacy of the American Passanger Rail system. Take a look at Pictures and read the history of the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads. Unfortunatly for too many people the only rememberence of the romantic vision of train trips is in old movies. Through lack of vision and incompetence too many people and politicians see trains as a money pit. No matter what a politician says about mass transit they still can't get off the drug of highway money
Posts: 516 | From: New Haven, CT USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Whether your intent or otherwise, Mr. Tanner, you "walked right into" what is wrong with advocating continuation, or even expansion, of the LD system.
With an Administration that purports to be bare bones with any program covered by "Omnibus Spending", you can't sell any program on nostalgia.
I had previously taken the position that the LD's were the catylist for garnering Federal level funding for the one operation Amtrak has that can be considered essential - the NECorridor. If funding for the Corridor can be obtained without maintenance of the LD's, even though I'm aware they can be well patronized and, owing to the bargain basement rates (some may also say level of service) afforded them by the Class Ones, they "really don't loose all that much money".
However, six trains a week (Sunset) through the fastest growing region in the USA (the Southwest) does not constitute any level of necessary service, and is, sorry to say, completely expendable. The Class One roads, could instantly put to use the dispatch slots that would be freed up to move what they are in business to move - freight.
I know the LD advocacy has reasoned voices here at our Forum, and I respect all of them. Further, I have $1850 of ticket receipts from 2004 filed away and $900 so far this year - all involved use of LD's.
But today, it appears that "no Yuma?, no moolah' does not ring quite as loud as it did, say, as recently as five years ago. Amtrak may well have to offer up even more 'sacrifical lambs' and have to make some "window dressing steps' to evolve towards a Corridor operation. The locally funded California intrastate services could well be transferred to a private sector operator under a "purchase of service" arangement to show "we are privatizing" (never mind it won't save a dime). But these steps may well be necessary to ensure Federal level funding of a nine State regional operation known as the Corridor, and that Amtrak will remain the operator of such.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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