Triweekly service will be overshadowed by drop in revenue

[neroden]

You do realize it would be a total disaster if the airlines shut down entirely. The feds are handing out emergency money to just about everybody right now.

The airlines shut down completely after 9/11/2001. We seemed to be OK, actually.

 

[Skyline]

The airlines shut down completely after 9/11/2001. We seemed to be OK, actually.

True. But we all knew THAT "new normal" would be very short-lived. What is being proposed for the downsizing of pax trains, especially LD, is likely not to be short-lived.

During the travel downturn, it may make economic sense to trim service and frequencies but only temporarily. To guarantee that it IS only temporary, our advocates must do a full court press on Congress to pass legislation setting a modest threshhold for return to daily service and improved on-board amenities. But even more urgently, Congress must force the private RRs, when conditions improve for pax services, to return to Amtrak its slots that the private RRs eagerly hope will be permanently occupied by freight trains.

 

[20th Century Rider]

I never said the government was handing out money for expansion. However the airline industry got a 25 billion dollar bailout. Delta had it's best profit ever in 2019. If they can give 25 billion to the airline industry the government can easily write a check to Amtrak. What did the airline industry to with all of that extra money from those bag fees and change fees lol. That's just my two cents.

As far as expansion. 1 long distance line east of the Mississippi that goes from Chicago to Orlando. Is not the right time to do it. No but Maybe that route could be introduced with funding.

I guess if the tiger is chasing it's tale, catches up with it, and bites it off, it will have been successful. Such is the government's handling of public rail transit. Especially when success can be seen with increasing ridership. Conclusion: success is not part of the equation. Although the graphic below is old... ridership has been increasing every year!