This afternoon, during my lunch break, I had a chance to catch a bit of a Senate floor debate on Senator Byrd's resolution to fund Amtrak at $1.4 billion next year. I saw Senator Bennett of Utah, speak against funding Amtrak's long-distance routes.
I sent him the following note in response to one of his comments:
Senator, Although I am not one of your constituents, I did have an opportunity to watch you on C-SPAN this afternoon debating Senator Byrd's resolution on Amtrak. Your position on this matter affects me because I have used, and hope to continue to use, Amtrak's California Zephyr to visit my niece in Denver, passing through Utah en route.
In your argument, you stated that all of the people who ride Amtrak through Utah could be accommodated on one bus a week.
A typical Greyhound bus can carry about 50 people. According to Amtrak, an average of 670 people get on and off the California Zephyr in Utah every week. Not bad for a train that comes through your state in the middle of the night. This does not include hundreds more who stay on the train en route to other destinations. (see: http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/factsheets/UTAH04.pdf )
I am wondering, how do you accommodate 670 people on a bus that seats 50?
Sincerely, James Toy
Posted by Tanner929 (Member # 3720) on :
Well if you divide that by seven days a week the answer is 2, but of course again those would just be the passangers going from Utah to Utah cities.
OK sorry for being a wise a@#. To bad the amtrak web site doesn't have a seat selection area like the ones on airline sites. This would give everyone a online real look at the amount of fannys in the seats for each trip. Might be a good research tool for politico's.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tanner929: Well if you divide that by seven days a week the answer is 2, but of course again those would just be the passangers going from Utah to Utah cities.
That would be two busses per day. He said one bus per week.
quote:OK sorry for being a wise a@#. To bad the amtrak web site doesn't have a seat selection area like the ones on airline sites. This would give everyone a online real look at the amount of fannys in the seats for each trip. Might be a good research tool for politico's.
Ya know, that would be a great idea. It would also be a benefit to passengers who like to book a specific room.
Posted by TheBriz09 (Member # 3166) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tanner929: To bad the amtrak web site doesn't have a seat selection area like the ones on airline sites. This would give everyone a online real look at the amount of fannys in the seats for each trip. Might be a good research tool for politico's.
That would be cool. Of course, not possible for coach since it's not assigned seating prior to boarding anyway. I have often wondered, though, why Amtrak doesn't allow picking a specific bedroom when booking online. Phone agents can find specific bedrooms easily enough, why can't people do so on the internet a la the airlines too?
I find it especially interesting considering Amtrak's recent site redesign - seems like it should have been simple enough to implement, considering they were overhauling the entire online booking process anyway.
Sigh.
Edit: Guess I should have tried to keep on-topic. BTW, I didn't see Bennett's comments but I read about them, and I find it most disturbing - especially that he wants to use federal money to fund the Northeast Corridor and is entirely ignorant of his home state. I would be furious if I lived in Utah. Heck, it already makes me mad and I don't live there!
Posted by JONATHON (Member # 2899) on :
Thats a great thing to point out Mr.Toy, if you ever contact him again, another fact to point out might be about the conditions of bus travel, bus travel is a very low class version of travel, greyhound buses are very dirty, and they dont service them before each trip, they clean them when ever they reach a stop that is equipt with a water whose and about a Janitor's cart worth of cleaning matterials, and that "Cleaning" stop could be at the beging, middle, or end of your trip, they make evryone get off, time of day (or night) make no differance, everyone gets off, they whose off the veichele, sweep it, dump the Ceptict tank, (whether or not unsuspecting passengers are standing close enough to get slashed by it or not), then hurry everyone back on board, make few food stops(portland to L.A., one half-hour food stop at a Carl's JR.), and if theres heavy Fumes leaking in the bus, they dont care, I had to travel Grey hound when Train 14, The Coast Starlight, was shut down South of Ugene Ore., and all that happend to me, except getting splashed by the Ceptick Fluid (Thank God), but there were a few unlucky passengers who I seen this happen to