Posted on 03/16/2014 11:13:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
The multiple folds of irony are all most too much to handle. The nation’s government-run passenger rail service – which has never once in more than four decades turned a profit and relies on perpetual taxpayer handouts - plans to start offering free rides to writers. The idea, which stemmed from a New York-based writer’s tweet, will launch an official residency program for writers on its long-distance routes, coincidentally the least cost-efficient and most heavily subsidized in the Amtrak system. Amtrak is a perpetual loser, and it’s unlikely that this writers-ride-free gimmick will have a happy ending.
Perhaps no government program has embodied bureaucratic waste and inefficiency quite like passenger rail travel in the United States – a taxpayer-funded gravy train that has received $40 billion in federal subsidies, has never once made it out of the red, and entered last year well over a billion dollars in debt. Worse, the service asked for another $2.6 billion in federal funding for fiscal year 2014, and yet has the audacity to offer “free” rides to writers.
“I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers.” A simple tweet at the agency’s social media account is all it took for the service to offer the writer a free trip from New York to Chicago and back. According to CNN, up to 24 writers will be chosen, and all will be offered trips on “undersold long-distance routes.” The Northeast Corridor is only profitable portion of Amtrak in the entire country – leaving many options for the writers in which to get the creative juices flowing.
The service has resorted to offering free tickets, a bed, desk, outlets, “and a window to watch the American countryside roll by” to a lucky few, perhaps hoping to drum up a little positive copy for the increasingly unpopular and expensive rail service. Each writers package has an estimated at a retail value of about $900 – not exactly chump change. Needless to say, the prospect for return on investment is slim – and that shouldn’t be a surprise to most taxpayers. After all, this is an agency that managed to lose $834 million on food sales alone in the past decade.
Thankfully, some in Congress have taken notice. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) penned an open letter to Amtrak President Joseph Boardman, questioning the logic behind the move.
“We are certain that there is considerable demand for free Amtrak tickets in any number of venues,” the lawmakers wrote. “Unfortunately, given Amtrak’s prodigious annual taxpayer subsidies, this plan raises multiple red flags…revenue from ticket sales was insufficient to even cover Amtrak’s operating expenses.” Hoping for return on investment on thousands of dollars-worth of free trips to help bridge this gap seems like a dubious plan, to say the least.
Amtrak offering free rides, with no metric by which to judge the success of the program, embodies perfectly the systemic problems with this government-run railroad.
Taxpayer-funded projects like Amtrak have no profit motive, no inclination to increase efficiency, and every incentive to continue shoveling taxpayer money into the proverbial firebox. That’s because for more than 40 years, Amtrak’s funding has been all but guaranteed regardless of performance.
Instead of expanding taxpayer subsidies even further and driving Amtrak even further off the rails of solvency, policymakers should be looking for ways to put a stop to what has become a Handout Express to the tune of $15 billion a year.
Not only should Amtrak begin to live up to its promise of getting back on stable financial footing by cancelling the free ride program, Congress should consider not re-authorizing the service at all – ending Amtrak’s free ride at our expense.
Better yet, how about free tickets to everybody who can prove that Obamacare freed them from Job Lock? They have time on their hands are they are all aspiring artists, writers, and poets. They need a place to meet and sing the sweet praises of O’Care. What better place than on the anachronistic, government-subidized, decrepit passenger train system? Nancy Pelosi should be on the inaugural train and personally welcome all the Freed Job Lockers on board.
Something is VERY FISHY about that photo. The train is clean and graffiti-free. The platform is clean and trash-free. The train appears to be MOVING.
I suspect they took this photo in Switzerland and somebody photoshopped “Amtrak California” onto the passenger car.
Free rides for writers but not readers? I call that discrimination! BTW, how do you prove you are a “writer” anyway?
seems me anyone posting on FR is a ‘writer.’ Bring on the ‘free’ rides!
in seriousness tho, this Amtrak story is the exact same story yet to be written of the planned California high-speed rail-to-nowhere, and yet another warning as to why not to fund the high-speed.
They’ll make it up in volume. ;-)
It’s been a while since I rode Amtrak - but I wonder if that would work? The first class section would get narration.
They’re giving only 24 free tickets away - I’m surprised that they aren’t required to turn in their work.
It seems somewhat reminiscent of FDR’s Federal Writers Project.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/intro02.html
This map of AMTRAK routes is part of the reason less people are riding. The connection between Jacksonville and New Orleans was closed in the 90s with no plans to reopen it. To go west, passengers must travel north and then west via such tranfers as D.C. and Chicago. No thanks for this Floridian. I used to ride at least once a year to Cal. and Oregon, but no more. Love train travel.
One part of that is really good; the section where the living ex-slaves are interviewed. Most of them didn't think badly of it and even looked back to it as the good old days. Something the current racist leaders do not want widely known. Having to call all those ex-slaves "uncle Toms" might not be a good selling point for their pocketbooks.
Trains will be twice as loud?
Hey! I’m a writer. I just filled out the application, why not?
Lots of writers in NY.
Check out the Amtrak bus connection through Bakersfield to Vegas. The buses have good wifi now.
That’s the Lux Bus right?
No, regular Amtrak service. I see LA-Vegas is direct, not through Bakersfield. $55 to ride in comfort.
They already offer free rides, just give the conductor a case of beer. They must not monitor ticket sales and riders as most businesses would be required to do.
Dude, can you send the links for the LA vegas direct? And is the 55 bux for the Amtrak train or by another bus company?
Ha ha—and those are just the writers in Brooklyn!
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