Posted on 05/07/2011 5:15:29 PM PDT by george76
Amtrak trains and inner city busses all smell the same. Like urine. When I was in Europe in the 90’s I rode city trains and international trains. Those were really fun and amazing even the long trip from Mannheim to Vicenza was relaxing and beautiful. Of course the trains there do NOT smell like outhouses.
Amtrak CEO ditches broken train to travel by car to ribbon cutting of Wilmington’s Joe Biden station.
Amtrak CEO abandoned his own train to make ribbon cutting ceremony for Joe Biden station in Wilmington,” Falcone reported. “When I told Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman it was a bad sign he was ditching the stranded Acela, he chuckled.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2691403/posts
I did a God knows what from Chicago to Seattle in 1970 and it was quite an awakening for this country boy.
Had the distinct opportunity to experience Amtrak in Charlotte, NC. /s Not an experience to be relished.
I took the Acela once, from DC to NYC when I didn’t feel like driving up there. It was a bit pricey, but it was comfortable, clean, pleasant and surprisingly fast. It dropped me off at the rabbit warren Penn Station. I got on the subway and finished the trip.
I’d prefer to see business running railroads and not the Federal government, but I did enjoy the trip. Amtrak did let me down though- I waited in Alexandria, VA for HOURS for a train to get to Union Station in DC. I finally gave up and took the Metro (which I should have planned to do in the first place) and hopped on the next available Acela.
“Hey, Marge! I’m comin’ up to visit you and the young’uns! Yep! Taking the train! See you in about a week and a half!”
Michigan’s most expensive mass transit Agencies.
http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/14989
Actual riders of the people mover in Detroit pay a whopping 7% of operating costs. Its pretty bad when the most successful mass transit systems are rider funded at a rate of around 25% with the other 75% coming from taxpayers who never use them.
LOL And I thought they wre gokng to use the Postal Service as a model!
Wouldn’t be a mess if Dagny ran it.
“Get the Comet in...on time...”
“Yes, Miss Taggart.”
Yes but remember in europe trains and mass transit are heavily, heavily subsidized by their massive amounts of taxes.
Nothing is free. Or even cheap. Someone is paying a lot for it somewhere along the line.
Many years ago I took a trip via VIA (Canadian Rail) from Ottawa to Montreal. Very relaxing two hours. Clean and comfortable.
Second leg of that trip was Montreal to NYC via Amtrak. Dirtiest, slowest, most uncomfortable 24 hours of my life. Raise the price, get rid of the riff-raff!
Japan gets a lot of kudos for it’s rail system, and it’s darn good, but high speed rail is a money-losing proposition. There is one, just ONE, shinakansen (bullet train) line that makes money. The Tokyo to Osaka Tokaido line. Every other Shinkansen line operates at a loss.
Select a time to go on a trip, visit the amtrak website, try to work out a route, and then look at the price for it if you get that far. Amtrak is a disaster. The only two times I rode, I went on the same short route, and they were running late both times.
I rode from Boston to Chicago once, taking a “Red eye” train that was supposed to leave Boston at 10pm. Instead it left 2 hours late because there was a dining car in the middle of the train that had to be swapped out, and because it was in the middle it was a two hour process. I had Cubs tickets for the next day and had a friend meeting me at the station. I asked about the schedule and they said the train would make up the time during the night. Ha ha.
We had to stop about five times to let passenger trains through. It seems that scAmtrak *leases* the rails from freight companies and does not have right of way. Every time we stopped they said not to worry, we’d be on time. Ha ha.
We arrived in Chicago very late of course. I got to the Cubs game in the bottom of the third inning. Then that night I had a train from Chicago to Memphis. Same deal. We stopped several times for freight to go by, and arrived in Memphis six hours behind schedule. Weeeeeeee.
There has to be a better way to do things. I know we have much more land to cover here than in Europe, but I still have to think that there is someone who can do some math and figure out how to make Amtrak profitable and effective.
Liberal are ill evil creatures and why is a GOP Governor attending this financial train-wreck and Union goon funding racket ?
This entire scam is UNION Goon payoff racket to ship the Dem's election funds just before the 2012 election and traitor Lahood is in handing out the funds ! Other GOP governors have stopped this scam.
Its $541 to Amtrak from FL to DC I can fly to Boston for 300 and rent a car in 4 hours. Never saw any reason to take a Train.
Some of the most awesome scenery I have ever seen in the states was when I was driving from Kansas to Nevada. I dare a train company to put a rail through there. At one point we actually saw a sign that said “no gas for 120 miles”.
Our experience was dreadful, too. Two hours late to our destination, four hours late on the return pick up.
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