The Amtrak dilemma
I found this (somewhat dated) Christian Science Monitor piece and it started me thinking.
Europe spoiled me. London’s Underground, while hardly perfect, is more wide-ranging and efficient than anything we have in the States (with the exception of the New York subway system). International rail travel in Belelux and France was easy, cheap and fast. Even Italy offered (mostly) nice trains that were cheaper and faster overall than a plane.
Everywhere I went, I was able to easily get around by rail, underground or otherwise. When I did fly, I got between the airport to the center of town by train (Rome, Paris, and Amsterdam). But it’s one thing to spend three hours on a train and quite another to spend four days on one. I had pretty well written off interstate rail travel in the United States given the massive distances the system needed to cover. And yet, we do have an interstate rail system: Amtrak .
Amtrak isn’t my first thought for long-distance travel in the continental United States, but it does operate about 20 long-distance lines. And some of them are really long-distance.
Common sense told me that long-distance trains don’t seem to fit with the typical fast-paced American lifestyle. So when I saw that Amtrak had proposed cutting 18 long-distance routes, it sounded like a good idea to me. If people aren’t riding them, why keep the routes in service?
But the Christian Science Monitor’s special changed my mind. People are riding the trains, and there is some evidence that cutting the long-distance routes will actually hurt Amtrak financially. Not just that, but cutting the trains will remove a vital link between the otherwise-isolated Midwest and the major population centers on the coasts.
In 2002, CSM listed three proposed solutions to Amtrak’s money problems, one of which sounds frighteningly like the privatization that distmantled British Rail and ultimately ruined Britain’s passenger rail system.
Two years later, Amtrak hasn’t cut all 18 of its long-distance lines. It is still in the red, however. It will be interesting to see what happens to the organization in the coming years.