Posted on 05/07/2011 5:15:29 PM PDT by george76
At least, don’t lie about the schedule. Include the delays so that people can plan... like you leaving earlier.
I have long advocated that the railways in North America could turn a profit if they used the business model that the operators of ocean liners adopted when they lost business to the airlines. Run luxury “cruise trains” through the more scenic areas and they could make a mint. A good example is VIA Rail’s service through the Rockies- you have to book it more than a year in advance because the Chinese and Japanese tourists pack every run. Unfortunately, because VIA is government-owned, they are doing nothing to capitalize on this market and still only operate one train a day on the route.
Here in Toronto, public transit gets about 80% of its operating budget from the farebox. That is only viable when you have 3 million people living less than an hour from the financial district; in other cities (and the ‘burbs) around here the transit service is subsidized for more than half the operating costs.
A lot of capital equipment in Amtrack. Sell it ALL off, let private carriers fix it.
Oh, wait, that won’t ever happen. Too much money (ie, corruption) for the politicians...
London-Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa-Quebec City and Calgary-Edmonton are the only VIA routes that make sense as an alternative to air travel. The service on the other routes is abysmal.
Its my only real problem with Rick Snyder at this point. He hasn’t said a lot about trains since the election and I’m hoping he’ll surprise us again.
After all, a high speed train can’t go anywhere if Ohio and Indiana have shut it down.
LOL I remember that one. Made Love Boat seem highbrow.
I looked at a trip to Toronto from Jackson Michigan. First I have to take a train to Chicago, then back east to Buffalo before getting off the train and taking a shuttle across the border.
I said screw it and drove the 6 hours.
problem with all of these sill highs peed rail schemes is that there is nothing high speed about them.
110Mph might be high speed in a car, but on the rails high speed to me is 220+mph. It has got to be time cometitive with air travel.
I can be in NYC in about 2 hours including my TSA shakedown.
By train it takes 5 hours, the same amount of time it takes me to drive to Grand Central in mid-town Manhattan.
Want to get me to take the train.... get me to mid-town Manhattan in 2 hours without the body cavity search for under $250 round trip. BTW that price would be booked now for travel on Monday 5/9 @ 06:00. under $150 booked for travel two weeks from today.
Interesting, didn’t know that, but it’s really not surprising.
Beautiful scenery along the lake Superior shoreline in Michigan’s UP. Lots of rutted two track but worth every second.
The Big Bus in 1976 was intended as a parody - a nuclear powered bus with swimming pool and bowling alley and such. That should have been a clue to the Supertrain producers 3 years later.
When I was in boarding school in the early 60’s I took the train from Cincy to Cleveland on breaks.....it was wonderful. The dining car had linen tablecloths and wonderful food. There were pullman cars that had couches etc., a great adventure. I won’t take Amtrak for fear that my fond memories of train travel will be ruined.
More than a few signs like that out here.
You’ll be happy to know that the trains in Southern California do not smell like urine.
Here in NE Ohio the Cuyahoga Valley National Park runs a winter time "Polar Express" which has a healthy ticket price and is sold out every night for weeks. It is a micro example but the principle is sound, and who knows--with development of effective ground transport at each end, and five/six dollar gas people might begin to decide that driving everywhere is not such a good deal after all.
ROFLMAO!
It takes a lot of hard work to become a memorialized ZOTTED Freeper!
I just don't think Americans will give up personal transportation in favor of mass transportation for a long long time..
Yup, sorry, we had to stop to let freight through on leased tracks.
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