Republicans say they will destroy Amtrak.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Interesting BBC article, especially this part:

The plan would split Amtrak into operating and maintenance companies and open both to competition from outside contractors.

I like this idea. Have Amtrak face the private sector. After all, they have a monopoly on running service between cities.

The maintainance company would be seperate and be the one that gets state funding for upkeep on the railroad network... if they do a good job.

That sounds familiar from somewhere And didn't it work fantastically

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes, yes, you keep *****ing about British Rail. Hell, if they can't make a profit with the low fares they have, then it would make sense to raise them right? And also to get rid of unprofitable rail lines.

We aren't as dependant on rail as Europe is. If you live in rural areas, get in your car, damn it!

[Az]

that means selling a kidney of a couple of family member here, Imran.

[Imran Siddiqui]

To get a car? It ain't nearly that bad in the states .

[Provost Harrison]

That is the cost of purchasing a rail ticket. Rail travel is prohibitively expensive for the most part and thus people avoid using it, especially with it's poor reputation...it needs heavy investment and no amount of passing the buck is going to fix it, it needs hard cash spending. These ideas sound very nice in theory, but in practice, there is no short cut.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Why? Let the rail die if it can't turn a buck.

Let people avoid it. If it gets that bad then there will be a market for rail transportation.

[Provost Harrison]

Do that...say goodbye to your rail system...it won't fix itself...

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Amtrak sucks. You spend more time in buses then you do in the train. The government should just privitize it. If it fails, then too bad.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Do that...say goodbye to your rail system

Fine with me .

The rail systems that make money (in the cities and in the Bos-NY-DC corridor, etc.) will survive.

[chequita guevara]

Cars are inexpensive in the US and they are subsidized by the state in that the roads are maintained by the state. Licenses also aren't as expensive here as they are in Europe, so any idiot with five hundred bucks can get a car.

If we had, for example, the same stringent requirements of driver training and vehical maintenance that Germany had, for example, there would be many fewer cars on the road.

Theben, Bunnygrrl, and I used to take the train down to Indy from Chicago rather frequently to visit Dad. Then they cut the train and replaced it with bus service. After that, we just started renting a car.

[Odin]

Stupid republicans.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Kidicious
The market has already shown that rail can't compete against air travel. That's why the private companies went bankrupt. I don't see how Amtrak could possibly make profit.

But if I wanted to take the train from SF back to Atlanta, it would be slightly cheaper and only take 4 days

[:) Smiley]

Amtrak loses money because the US Govt operates it as a transportation company, while it could in fact make money as a tourism company.

Amtrak ought to be split, with the urban routes being privatized into competitive companies, and the long distance routes being run by the National Park Service.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Interesting BBC article, especially this part:

The plan would split Amtrak into operating and maintenance companies and open both to competition from outside contractors.

I like this idea. Have Amtrak face the private sector. After all, they have a monopoly on running service between cities.

The maintainance company would be seperate and be the one that gets state funding for upkeep on the railroad network... if they do a good job.

I like the idea of privatizing the maintaince but the idea of breaking the national carrier into 50 small and uncoordinated little carriers without dealing with the much needed under laying problems will mean we will have 50 backrupt state carriers instead of one backrupt national carrier.

[Felch]

If Amtrak is so great it should pay for itself. McDonalds sucks, but they don't need federal subsidies.