What would you cut?

[Ryan]

Amtrak had very little to do with the potential cancellation (not happening anymore) of the Hoosier State.

 

[dlagrua]

I would cut all airline subsidies, road subsidies and use the money for Amtrak. Why is it that people focus on Amtrak when it is only 3% of the annual transportation budget.

I would love to not see cuts and see the Floridian, Broadway Ltd and Desert Wind service restored but in todays political climate, it is very unlikely to ever happen.

 

[Guest]

I would cut all ties with Congress.

I would cut all government tie-ins that aren't directly and specifically related to Amtrak and its operations. That would include terminating any pre-Amtrak obligations (if Congress wants these, let congress pay for them directly).

I would terminate Amtrak executive management and board, and replace them all with management talent with appropriate skills (like for-profit transportation). I know that a lot of you disagree, but I think executives with Cruise Line experience would be good for "designing" and "executing" Amtrak sleeper service including its food.

 

[Ryan]

The amount of wrong-headedness displayed in the previous two posts is staggering.

Cut subsidies for air and roads? Why? How do you expect to get goods to market without the government building roads? Not to mention, the government construction of roads is specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

Cut ties to Congress? For profit transportation? Get real. Rail transportation deserves a seat at the table just as air and roads do. Each bring different benefits to the table are are part of a comprehensive transportation system needed to function as a nation.

 

[jis]

Yes, it takes a certain amount of selfish delusion to believe that the economy should be ground to a halt only so as to fulfill ones unrealistic passenger train dreams.

 

[dlagrua]

I think everyone here is missing my point that is, why don't we start picking on the huge road and airline subsidies instead of the tiny part of the transportation budget that is Amtrak. People that don't use Amtrak are often against it as they believe that it is a waste of the taxpayers money. I don't use the airlines, so I believe that airline subsidies are a waste of money. Two can play the same game.

 

[Ryan]

Why pick on anything? It's not a zero sum game. We all pay for things that we don't use, and benefit from others paying for things we use that they don't.

 

[FriskyFL]

I've worked for too many bosses that believe that a company can cost-cut its way to prosperity. Still waiting.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Sorry I didn't mean for it to sound antirail although I can see how it does. I just meant as a kind of last resort situation that's all. I just looked at the system and tried to figure out where the least useful route was. The problem with the Cardinal and Cincinnati is that it gets there in the middle of the night so pretty useless. Also the rest is just West Virginia. Like I said the major cities (DC, NY, Chicago) are already served. I guess I just don't see the function of the route. Maybe if it offered more connections to other cities that aren't served now that would help.

Somehow more than 100,000 passengers a year find the Cardinal useful as is. The PRIIA study estimated that ridership would at least double if the train were daily.

With miserable hours, Cincinnati still got over 13,000 pax, most of them going less than 400 miles (i.e. Chicago, LOL). Meanwhile Charleston, WV ginned up 9,500 pax, and Huntington, WV, added almost 6,000 more. In other words, WV exceeded big city Cincinnati.

The plans for the Mid-West regional network included a spoke Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati. Plans. As in, Don't hold your breath. But Amtrak clearly believes that restarting a route would be much, much more difficult than improving an existing route. So we have the Cardinal and Sunset Limited acting in part as placeholders until enuff equipment and money can allow them to grow into full routes.

And of course, the Cardinal feeds traffic into the national system at Chicago and D.C. Chop the Cardinal and shave a few passengers off the Builder, the Zephyr, the Chief, and other trains. How much would that increase losses?

The cure for what ails Amtrak is not to amputate a few routes, but to grow the national system.

 

[tonys96]

http://www.careerbliss.com/amtrak/salaries/

I don't know how old this info is. The average salary is $61,000. When you add benefits I wonder what is would bring the total to.

think this one skewed the average?

$70979K Electrical Technician Average Salary at Amtrak (2 salaries)

 

[WoodyinNYC]

http://www.careerbliss.com/amtrak/salaries/

I don't know how old this info is. The average salary is $61,000. When you add benefits I wonder what is would bring the total to.

think this one skewed the average?

$70979K Electrical Technician Average Salary at Amtrak (2 salaries)

The "info" at the link is gibberish. They put the salary at $70 million a year. Ha Ha Ha. You have to be a CEO to steal that kind of money.

Well, I guess here they give $70,979,000 as the salary if that K means 000.

NO, THIS IS NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE!

If they mean that the average salary is $70,979 then I'm O.K. with it. In fact, it does seem low. Is an electrical technician one who works on the multimillion-dollar electric locomotives if they go on the blink? Give these techs a raise, please!

 

[peconicstation]

When Amtrak was being developed in 1970 we were told they would have to cut much of the existing passenger train service on May 1, 1971, but after Amtrak was organized some of the discontinued service would be reinstated. For the most part that didn't happen and then there were more cuts in 1979. Once passenger train service has been discontinued and infrastructure abandoned, it will likely never return. After 5 years or so, those who might use a passenger forget that it was a option. Even if they tried to reinstate the Sunset LTD east of New Orleans, its been almost 10 years since the thrice weekly train ran, so it has been for the most part (except for railfans) forgotten. The Amtrak system is so skeletal now that if you abandoned long routes, you may as well abandon the entire system except for the various corridors.

After the initial Amtrak timetables of May 1, 1971 there was a significant increase to the Amtrak network during it's first 5 years.

Trains such as the Lake Shore Limited, North Coast Hiawatha, Montrealler, Adirondack, International, and others were added after the intitial routes were announced, and some others came on board with the advent of Amfleet equipment, (Pioneer, Palmetto, as examples).

That said, the Carter Cuts of 1979 did trucate the network and most of those routes (National Limited, North Coast Hi, Floridian, etc) have never come back.

Ken

 

[oldtimer]

think this one skewed the average?

$70979K Electrical Technician Average Salary at Amtrak (2 salaries)

NO, THIS IS NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE!

If they mean that the average salary is $70,979 then I'm O.K. with it. In fact, it does seem low. Is an electrical technician one who works on the multimillion-dollar electric locomotives if they go on the blink? Give these techs a raise, please!

The source is very unreliable I worked 30+ years in the Electrical Technician position. After adjusting my gross salary for inflation I only made that amount one year. That was the year I worked 23 days straight had one day off and then worked another 19 days in a row. These days were on the road in a brutal winter. It was "blood money" and I was ordered to take these trips by the mechanical superintendent due to engine failures. Yes, I figured out the root cause and found a workable solution.