Posted on 01/24/2019 5:21:12 AM PST by vannrox
PITTSBURGH -- For nearly a quarter of a century, Amtrak's Capitol Limited route has taken me from my beloved hometown to Washington, D.C. Sometimes for fun, almost always for work, the experience is never the same.
And if you are a rail lover, it is always about the experience.
There is only one train that leaves the Pittsburgh station every day, and that is at 5:20 a.m. (which means your alarm goes off at 3:30 a.m.). Thanks to sharing the line with freight, that almost always means a 20- to 90-minute departure delay. Then there's the nearly eight-hour trip, twice what it takes me to drive there. Flying would only take an hour.
So why ride the rails? For starters, there's the joy of looking out your window to swaths of the countryside you'd never see if you were flying over them or cruising along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
There are miles of old industrial sites in places like Braddock and McKeesport, Pennsylvania, some filled with ghosts of the past. If you are curious enough, you look up what they were as you pass them by and learn something new about the cities and towns that built this country, as well as the people who built it.
You also see a remarkable amount of them being reused or repurposed as new companies chase the ghosts away. Rebirth among the ashes is the story of America.
The post office in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, is charming. The decay of the old brewery in Smithton, Pennsylvania, is hauntingly beautiful. The rapids of the Youghiogheny in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, are breathtaking. So are the sleepy little towns like Hyndman, Pennsylvania, and Paw Paw, West Virginia, where the long-long-short-long warning whistle of the train at each crossing echoes off the mountains that surround these valley towns.
What happens inside the train matters as well. One of the true charming parts of the ride is the dining car experience. It isn't just the warm, buttery grits and the crisp bacon. It is the people you meet because of the communal dining.
It was there on the Friday before former President Barack Obama's first inauguration where I met African-Americans traveling from as far as California by train to attend his inauguration. From veterans of the civil rights movement to young people caught up in his aspirational rhetoric, we were all sitting, conversing, sharing stories and experiences.
Last Monday, when I boarded the train for the first time this winter, I discovered the warm, buttery grits were no longer an option, replaced by a tub of yogurt and granola -- in a box. Dinner now came in a box. So did lunch. Gone were the crisp white tablecloths, and gone were the people who always cheerfully made whatever meal you wanted.
My first reaction was: If I were to want to be treated the way I am on an airline, I would take one. I took to Twitter and Facebook to express my disappointment in my best mom tone.
A call to Amtrak at first met deflection. As is the norm with spokesmen these days, they declined to talk and tried to insist I put my questions in email.
However, persistence, done courteously, sometimes does prevail. Apparently, I wasn't the only objector. Amtrak returned to hot meals by this past Wednesday.
The crisp, white tablecloths and the jobs have not returned. In fact, a month ago, employees held a small rally in D.C. to protest the dining service changes and the threat of outsourcing some 1,700 union food and beverage jobs.
Change is inevitable. Change is important. But it is often spurred by erroneous assumptions.
As Peggy Noonan commented on Twitter: "Amtrak's new management thinks trains are planes. A lot of us are on the train because we don't want to be on the plane."
Notably, Amtrak's new president, Richard Anderson, is the former chief executive of Delta Air Lines. There are a lot of things about rail service that can and should be modernized. But there are also some that shouldn't.
Anderson's next course of action should be a trip around the country by rail to listen to his devoted customers and learn who they are and why they ride. He and his team might realize what shouldn't be changed.
Glad to see that are tax dollars are funding their sightseeing trips.
“are” = “our”
I thought we heard this all before...
I’d be sympathetic to your loss of buttery grits, bacon and white tablecloths if you were paying full fare, ie, without the billions in subsidies from government.
Isn’t Amtrak subsidized?
Moving people by train is a HUGE waste of resources! Planes can travel 10 times faster, never block other traffic, can change routes easily.
Last time I took an overnight train in the US it was exactly that experience. Sleeper cabin, table service and hot meals made to order. But that was decades ago. Took overnight train in Europe, it was not as pleasurable - no dining car. But they went around to the sleeper cars to take meal orders. I’ve taken short haul trains recently, 3-4 hours. Meals in a box. Drink choices limited. I had to tip the veverage guy $5 for a couple extra bottles of single-serve red wine. At least the price was fair. The train ticket was fair, and the ride for the short haul though probably 1 hour longer than driving was much more pleasurable and relaxing than driving.
Prior to this year, the subsidy rate was near $1.5-billion a year. I think the new revised subsidy to take place was dropping down near half of that.
I will point this out. You can’t find a single rail service in Asia, Canada, Europe or China....that operates freely without any subsidy.
If you did cut the subsidy entirely....then the ticket prices would rise in a drastic sense with Amtrak (probably over 50-percent in short-runs, and maybe 100-percent for the coast to coast trips). I would certainly not pay $1800 for a small cabin deal from Chicago to Seattle (one-way).
“Isn’t Amtrak subsidized?”
Globally RR’s are subsidized. There has never been a successful railroad effort except for maybe one and a freeper once told me where that was... it might have been the bullet train in Japan, but I’m not exactly sure because my memory does not accurately recall. However, Railways in America have never been successfully run without subsidies.
Actually, trains are the most energy-efficient way of travelling, or in today-speak, the “greenest”
The government should subsidize a stagecoach line across the plains. That would such a one-in-a lifetime treat to travel. And wouldn’t it be so cool to send someone a Christmas card by Pony Express (Mail it in September!)
Read between the lines....Trump’s fault.
I suggest you actually read what else this writer says before making such a slur against her.
A good place to start is: https://townhall.com/columnists/salenazito/.
Have a blessed day.
He was the last to bed at night, and the first up in the morning. He purchased all the food, made all the meals, kept everything clean, and even polished the shoes left at night in the shoe compartments (accessible from both inside and outside the berths). Every morning he made breakfast to order, and even left a box of the correct brand of cigarettes beside the plates of those who smoked.
When someone asked why the custom silverware and china plates all had the name "Fairlane" boldly printed on them, it was explained that the car had been once owned by Henry Ford. It was returned to the railroad when he stopped using it. That was obviously how the elite travelled before airplanes.
“Actually, trains are the most energy-efficient way of travelling, or in today-speak, the “greenest” “
I think that is for freight, I’m not sure about people.
Is AMTRAK still losing cars?
I remember watching the SALT ratification hearings and there was very tedious and lengthy discussion about placement of and accountability for ICBM’s, so the US could comply with the SALT guidelines, while keeping mobile missiles secretly stored and out of Russian range
Simultaneously in the news… AMTRAK had a problem accounting for some lost cars.
I think it was Senator Church who finally said: “Why not just mount the ICBM’s on AMTRAK... GIVE the Russians the schedule ... and they’ll NEVER find them.”
There are very few places in the US where passenger train service makes sense. Boston-New York is probably the best example. High population centers with robust public transportation when you get there.
Yes, moving freight long distance by train makes sense. Not people. Long-haul self driving trucks may change things.
The Northeast Corridor lines on Amtrak (Boston to D.C.) are likely the only lines that a privatized Amtrak could continue profitably. The rest of the lines exit only to make some state and federal legislators happy, thinking they are doing something “good” while forcing Amtrak to not run profitably.
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